Destroyed
by Bhryn Astairre
Summary: The simple story of a girl and the odds she must face to survive. *Complete* R'n'R would be nice...
1. Prologue

Prologue: Of Angels and Shadows  
The worlds had shifted, too out of alignment.  
  
Into the spaces between the worlds came a new kind of shadow that people had avoided seeing before. It crept and crawled with insidious constancy, until the viscous and palpable shadows began to take form. It was subtle at first, the first few shadows barely owned names or minds, and they sank and mired about the realities of the worlds, looking and waiting for a moment into which they could slip.  
  
Then he saw them.  
  
The only one to study them close enough, his eyes shone unearthly and his mind grasped the terrible realities that they could bring about with mere flicks of their hands. He had spent time, just fascinated by them and in the end such an understanding brought about the only thing that it could.  
  
He became one with them.  
  
As he grew with them, shadowing them and also giving them a new dimension of reality, he also gave them the ability to move into worlds, and then all the trouble began... and it started with the less noticable worlds. Only a few at first so no one would notice.. and it all started at the point of simple worlds, with farms and little technology.  
  
And in the end... it would all be noticed.  
  
He urged them on, he gave them reasons and passions, becoming their master and minion, their toy and revelation. He was everything, nothing and something to be pitied yet adored.  
  
The Destruction was born.  
  
* * * * * * * * * *   
Aeris straightened from where she was stood, within the silence that had become her home. It was always quiet in the solace of the Promised Land, here no one cried or was lonely, for there was always the sensation of planet and of happiness.  
  
The fields ruffled and rippled, then lay calm about her.  
  
The home she had evisioned for herself in the tomes of death was a beautiful one, fields full of flowers and bright skies. Once she had seen a young man walking past her in dark leathers and a ruffled collar, dragging what seemed to be a sword behind him, but a girl had saved him from the silence that was death.   
  
In her small, delicate hands she held a trowel, her attire much different from the girlish clothes she had worn when alive. She still wore the pink dress, but this one had straps on her shoulders, edged in a darker pink. She wore no jacket for the weather meant little in a place where you owned no skin or senses. Her feet were booted still, for the sake of her gardening and comfort, her left wrist captured by bracelets that jangled halfway up her forearm, each inscribed with Cetra sayings. About her slender waist hung a half-belt of blue, straps hanging down her left hip.   
  
She still wore the twisted necklace of threads her mother had made for her when they had been in captivity. Aeris had seen her mother only at a distance in her dream world. She thought they looked alike, and the suond of her voice was often in her thoughts as she worked happily amongst her flowers.  
  
But today was different, the silence afflicting the air was different and with a twist she turned to look behind her, over golderods and rapeseed grass, across the waving fields of corn and small orchards in the distance where pears and apples grew that knew no mortal home anymore.  
  
The scene tried...bending, if possible and she frowned.  
  
"What is that?" she whispered, dropping the trowel so it struck the earth and rolled to land near to her gardening basket. Putting a slightly dirty hand to her hair, she lifted a bang from her green eyes and started walking towards where the scenery had bent..  
  
Whispers come close now.  
  
Don't look.  
  
~Planet? Mother?~  
  
Something darker comes, we must send you away.  
  
~What, why? I'm dead, for some techincal reason I can't quite latch onto that would be a small problem..~  
  
In her fear of hearing the proclamation she hung onto the sarcasm she had picked up when travelling about with Barrett and Tifa, her other hand now gripping onto her necklace so tightly she was either going to strangle herself or cut her hands to shreds.  
  
The air gasped over her shoulder and she turned with a scream, finding nothing behind her. This was crazy, for the past six months everything had been quiet and peaceful and now this kind of madness was happening and she didn't understand it.  
  
All she had wanted was her own small idaho, away from reality where she could learn to live again, under sunshine, where the nightmares would vanish and she would happy if in some small part.  
  
They come without hearts, without thought or real reason. They know no pity, no sorrow and no end. We must return you to life for the future of all worlds, for our future and the hope you can give life to your friends once more.  
  
A key is inside you.  
  
~a key?~  
  
You will never know it, you will never see it. Those who survive, who struggle on all have keys, however large or small, however seen or unseen. One day you will meet him.. one day.  
  
~Planet?~  
  
A hand fell onto her shoulder and she twisted round to see nothing yet again.  
  
Trembling at this violation of the Promised land, she backed up, then turned on her heels and began running as fast and as hard as she could through the grass, running past where she had left her gardening tools. Behind her, auburn hair unravelled and shone in the light of the sunshine, and behind her she could almost taste the revulsion of the planet.  
  
Something was coming.  
  
~Planet? Mother? I'm scared...what do I do? ~  
  
You will know.. go!  
  
Go.  
  
Her feet seemed to trip over themselves and she went sprawling into the grass, her chin striking off the solid ground with a bit too much force for her liking. Shutting her eyes with a wince, she moved a hand under her and slowly raised up onto it, then lifted her head.  
  
Malevolent yellow eyes stared back at her, surrounded by a too large head on a smal impish body. It was crafted, seemingly of pure shadow, and then it gave a hop and grabbed a hold of her hair, tugging sharply.  
  
"Ow," she yelled, in alarm, putting out her hands and pushing the shadow creature away from her, It half giggled and bounced high as Aeris got to her feet and looked behind her. Small shapes of black bobbed everywhere in the grass, then with a yell she looked up as light consumed her...  
  
* * * * * * * * * *  
  
She woke, with Yuffie's smiling face looking down at her and then painfully she sat up and licked her lips.  
  
"Where am I?"  
  
"Hollow Bastion, we had to bring you here, sorry."  
  
Her eyes frowned, then she looked across at the others gathered. She didn't recognise two, but one she did know was Yuffie. The room was dark, and frightfully opressive.  
  
"Where is everyone?"  
  
"Something bad is going on outside, you shouldn't.."  
  
Aeris swung her legs to the side of the slab she had been laid out on, in some sick parody of death and then shakily made her way to the open window and small cupped balcony beyond it. Yuffie followed silently, and peered past Aeris' shoulder.  
  
Hollow Bastion, a place that Sephiroth had once set up as his home, a place that seemed to cross worlds and realities, as if several worlds were touched together at once on this convergence. In the darkness of the castle, books and knowledge were saved. Here people passed through from one place to the next, breaking walls between worlds as she understood it. Her world.. touched close to that of the Sorceress', to others who lived as much as them, with magic.  
  
Below people milled in the courtyards and the battlements beyond, and without a second thought, she turned away from the balcony, grabbing Yuffie's hand much to the young ninja's surprise.  
  
"Aeris?!"  
  
"We have to go down there, where is Cloud? The Sorceress? I need to tell them something.."  
  
Yuffie tried digging her heels in as Aeris rushed past the surprised doctor Kadowaki, making her way to the Library doors and staring down the endless steps. Then with resolve she moved with Yuffie, ignoring the girl's protests.   
  
"We only just managed to bring you back with the doctors help! It took a whole other world's expertise to get you back to us, and now you're already trying to get yourself killed? Sometimes, Aeris, I have to wonder how hard headed you can be, I mean... ahhh...steps steps steps!" Yuffie's voice trailed off into breathless murmurs as Aeris continued down the stairs, set.  
  
"Yuffie, you don't understand, I mean, why are they fighting?"  
  
"Some shadow things," the darker haired girl shrugged, "I tried not to pay too much attention."  
  
"Maybe you should from now on.. they're shadows come to destroy us, get rid of us all. The planet brought me back to save you all, and you have to stop fighting, we have to get away!"  
  
"We can take them."  
  
Aeris stopped, and turned, her auburn hair falling past her face as she sighed, at the base of the stairs and turning into the library itself now, the musty smell of books palpable in the air.  
  
"I don't want anyone hurt," she murmured softly.  
  
Yuffie looked down at her boots, the new moccasin types she had been saving up for the last month to buy. "I know Aeris, but sometimes people have to fight."  
  
"Yes, but sometimes they don't."  
  
There was a silence, where the ancient tried to desperately collect her thoughts, thinking of all the words the Planet had said. She so badly wanted to trust to fate, wanted to believe that everything would turn out right when she heard the breathless sounds of people running and turned to look.  
  
Cid came up the stairs, cigarette in mouth, spanner in a hand. His blond hair was stuck up ragged behind his goggles, face smeared with soot and he blinked, looking at the ancient who stood jacketless for the first time before his eyes. She stared right back, trying to measure her thoughts and also trying not to seem rude, then smiled.  
  
"Cid."  
  
"Aeris, goddamn girl it's good to see ya alive, but we had better mosey else our asses ain't worth jack shit."  
  
Yuffie arched a brow wryly and folded her hands over her chest, "Nice to see you've been cleaning up your language, old man."  
  
Cid turned to her now and waved the spanner at her in the most threatening manner possible, and for an instant Aeris was relieved her friends had lost none of their vigour or fire. "Listen girl, don't make me shove this where the sun don't shine..."  
  
"Enough," came the next weary voice, Tifa and Cloud coming up the stairs with another person behind them. Aeris smiled, and half ran towards Tifa, taking the taller girls hands in hers. Wordlessly the brown eyed girl stared back, eyes shining with unshed tears as she studied her friend.  
  
"You're alive."  
  
"Tifa, It's so good to see you."  
  
"And you, we have so much to talk about.." Tifa looked at Cloud who was studying Aeris in a silent fashion, then quietly she moved aside so Cloud could share in the moment. His iron clad hands moved to Aeris' hands, then he stared down at her with wide blue eyes.  
  
She felt faint, she had dreamt of this even in death.  
  
"Cloud," she whispered.  
  
He said nothing, but his eyes crinkled as lips moved in a very rare smile, just for her. Those eyes spoke love, screamed it and she suddenly felt complete.  
  
"Ahem," coughed the un-named man and she looked over Cloud's shoulder as best she could. "Pleasure to meet you, Lady Aeris."  
  
"I.."  
  
He stood taller than Cloud, thinner too but no less muscular if that was possible. His brown hair was spiked and cut long to his shoulders, stranges slices of it cutting past his face and down his cheek bones, some over his ears. His eyes were a smoky glass grey, and his clothes were all in dark blue, with strange symbols on a sleeve. He also seemed to have a liking for belts, with three about his waist, trouser sides adorned by them, and a few on his arms.  
  
His face had a slanted scar down it, and she tilted her head.  
  
She had seen him before, the man from her Promised Land, as he walked past dragging that very same sword behind him helplessly.   
  
"It is nice to see you survived death, in a way."  
  
The man blinked, then looked away, "whatever."  
  
Tifa smiled, and patted the cold man's shoulder despite the icy look her granted her with, "this is Squall Leonheart, the Sorceress' personal bodyguard."  
  
"A pleasure, Sir Squall," she said, then spread her hands, "I'm glad we're all here who can be... there's something I need to tell you."  
  
From below there was a loud detonation, and she moved back, Yuffie automatically moving infront of her with her shuriken drawn and Leon turned to look with a dark expression, then murmured, "if it's about the heartless, Rinoa knows. She's doing all she can right now."  
  
Aeris hesitated. She knew? And yet the girl was out there, doing her best, facing it with all her heart and hoping to save at least some small shred of this place. Her fingers crept up to her throat, and Squall turned to look back at her, seeing the motion, "don't worry, she's made her choice. Now let's all get out of here whilst we can."  
  
"Everyone..else?"  
  
Tifa's face grew somber, and Cid looked away. Their faces said all she needed to know, and sorrowed she bowed her head, wincing and trying to shut her eyes.  
  
"I have failed."  
  
"No, not yet, come on," Yuffie scooped a hand under one of Aeris' elbows and began pulling on her, "Cid has a rocket now that can move between worlds. We'll use it to escape somehow... come on!"  
  
As everyone else started forward, she was left stood next to Squall, who glanced down at her. Then he smiled, perhaps out of kindness, and then too began moving off.. and helplessly she followed.  
  
Their steps drew them to the spires of Hollow Bastion, up stairs and round the resting places of rooks and crows, where they made their nests and cawed out pleas to the harsh world. No Rook remained now, Cid had them cleared out when building the ship for travel and now it stood as some grotesque platform for launching, the ship ugly and squat but all the hope they had left. Coughing slightly, Aeris followed in last after Yuffie, and stared at it.  
  
Cid patted it, then everyone jumped at the sound of crashing from below. "Right well, screw introductions to my baby, everyone haul ass into it, now."  
  
Aeris was among the first pushed forward, then Yuffie and Squall who sat either side of her. Cid clambered into the pilot seat and began pressing buttons, and then she jumped again, hearing a scream that outdid all screams, making hairs stand up on her arms.  
  
As blood drained from her face she turned to see Cloud drawing his massive sword, and Tifa leaping away from the stairwell, her dark eyes desperate.  
  
"They're coming!"  
  
"No, Tifa... get in, quickly," Aeris screamed, trying to undo her seat belt and scramble over Squall who was unfortunate enough to be in her way. His hands caught her about her waist, Yuffie trying to hang onto her legs.  
  
Tifa turned and looked up at Aeris as the shadows seeped in, yellow eyes hungry and their silence deafening most sounds. Those brilliant eyes watched her with hope.. desperate hope.  
  
"Aeris," she said softly, "find a way."  
  
"Tifa, please!"  
  
Her hand was oustretched, even as Cloud swung at the creatures. The engines under them rumbled, and she gritted her teeth.  
  
"Find a way. I know you can," then turning as a larger shadow appeared, Tifa shut her eyes and jumped into the Fray, disappearing into the shadows. Aeris went mad, trying to push Squall from her way, hand digging into his leg painfully, enough for him to grunt but despite this he held on.  
  
"NO!" she screamed... and then turned her green eyes onto Cloud who had beaten some back. "Cloud!"  
  
"I'll come back to you," he shouted, "Just go! I'll not leave you on your own.. Yuffie, Leon, take care of her."  
  
"Of course," Yuffie shouted back.   
  
She could feel their hands on her, and as shadows filled her vision she screamed again in anger... the engines fired, and the world went white, then darkness erupted..into nothing.  
  
...Find a way... 


	2. 1: Silence Ever After

Destroyed  
  
Chapter One: Silence Ever After  
  
The world turned.  
  
She had dreamt this once, so long ago.  
  
Or maybe it hadn't been a dream.   
  
In it she remembered the stars lifting and turning about her, their cadence and glow a soft pattern of green against the velvet of black. They bubbled with hidden energy and struk her quietly, moving past her, above her.  
  
Her hand outstretched to them, and with soft loving caresses of recognition, then passed her and touched her, named her and made her. From such places, she was made the person she is, person she was. Here, so many things began and ended, with the never ending sounds of silence that could be called a kind of music. The kind of silence after the most beautiful music you have ever heard, where the notes keep lingering on despite the fact people stopped playing.  
  
It enchanted her.  
  
Here was life and love, laughter and fun, memories good and bad and time played little part in the reality that became the lifestream. Voices of the past, of the future, all were the same.  
  
And she smiled.  
  
... but then the darkness came.. and swallowed it.  
  
Bitter tears choked her, and she turned on the spot with a desperate cry, trying to find some kind of reality in the fantasy that betrayed her, but her echoing words in the musical silence were eaten up.   
  
She screamed herself hoarse.  
  
No one answered, but for him.  
  
"You live," he whispered, wonderingly.  
  
Afraid, too afraid to move she held her arms close to her sides and tilted her head to look over her shoulder, past the braid that slung down between her shoulder blades. Softly she bit on her lip, and forced open her eyes.  
  
At first she saw only the darkness, recognising nothing from it but the swirl of green orbs.. until she saw two that didn't drift upwards in cohesion with the rest and she frowned in concern.  
  
The lurched forward and she faced them, and a figure came from the shadows, white hair suddenly tinted luminescent with green, and those cold mako eyes just watching her and judging her with equal passion.  
  
"You live."  
  
"I...I do," she whispered.  
  
"I will find you, and kill you again if I have to."  
  
She shook her head, hands creeping up to her necklace as they always did when she felt a need to be comforted against the shadows, against the bleakness. Just staring into the cold eyes, she couldn't help but cry out to the planet, a world that existed no more.  
  
"There...there is no more need for killing. It's over."  
  
"Over?"  
  
"The world is gone, our homes are gone. The Promised Land, the Sorceress'.. everything. Now we exist outside of...reality."  
  
He tilted his chin, showing his handsome, yet starkly bleak features, the white lashes over his eyes casting lurid shadows down his smooth cheeks. Then he laughed, "But, I have always existed outside of reality."  
  
She backed off, with a slight shake of her head.  
  
"Beware, Aeris.. I will find whatever did this, and then finish their slapdash job."  
  
As she watched him turn, a voice from the other side of her rang out, clear and strong. "She will find a way."  
  
The one winged man of her nightmares stopped, and glanced back at the other figure. She looked too, seeing Tifa stood there, bright despite the shadows, one hand on her hip and the other plated generously in metal. Her chin was struck at a protective angle, as she moved closer to the ancient, the orbs of life floating about her strongly.  
  
"She has power you will never understand."  
  
He just laughed.. and faded into the shadows.  
  
Looking down at her small hands, she tried collecting her terrified thoughts, and moved so she could look up at Tifa through her bangs, and saw her friend smiling at her with easy friendship, no hint of the jealousy she was once prone to marring those calm features. She was... gone.   
  
The reality hit her hard, and she reched out, grasping at Tifa's arm, but it passed through, orbs of green flowing into the space she had made in the arm and remoulding it into Tifa's projected image, from her soul.  
  
"Aeris, don't be afraid."  
  
"But I am," she murmured, looking down. "Dying for one world is one thing, but this is bigger than I had imagined."  
  
Her friend placed an insubstantial hand on her shoulder, and with a slight sigh Aeris looked up into the wine dark eyes, and saw only re-assurance.  
  
"Trust me, if anyone can find a way, you will."  
  
Saying nothing, Aeris looked at Tifa, then opened her mouth but before she could say anything her friend answered for her.  
  
"He's out there. Save him, from himself. For you.."  
  
"M-me?"  
  
Tifa smiled, and then with a casual flick of her dark hair turned with that sway to her hips she had, and walked off into the shadows.. vanishing.  
  
Aeris watched her go, then looked down at her clasped hands, then opened them. Inside was nestled a small snowdrop..and softly, she shut her eyes to pray even as the screams began again.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * *  
  
She woke with a soft gasp, and then looked down at her clasped hands. Inside one was half curled a snowdrop.  
  
She swallowed, and weakly pushed the covers off herself, the room she was in a deep red with gilt colourings crawling up over the walls in beautiful decadence, something she didn't really go for herself, liking the simple approach to house design. Then, standing in her heavy nightgown of pink clouds on a white background, she moved to the door and opened it.  
  
The corridor was empty, and no one was about.  
  
It had been over a month since they had come to Traverse Town, a small existance on the very edge of seemingly nowhere, with people who had fled here from various places, trying to escape the nightmares that slowly crept about the edges of their realities.   
  
Putting the snowdrop down on her bedside table, she slipped through the doors into the hallway, and then made her way ever so slowly down the hallway, to the rooms next to hers. On one side was the green room, Yuffies chosen room as she claimed green, or the sensations that the colour had attached to it, made her closer to her ninja senses.  
  
Leon had the blue room on the other side. Squall, or Leon as he rather fancied calling himself now, had taken his role as her protector rather seriously, and thusly spent all his time practising with his gunblade, a contraption she didn't wholly understand.  
  
It wasn't too early in the day, but confirmed snores from Leon's door told her at least one of her chosen protectors was still asleep. Cautiously, she moved down the hall, past Yuffie's room and towards the staff room, which consisted of a kitchen, dining room and a small living room in which they spent a lot of their time, poring over books for any kind of information that could help them.  
  
She placed her hands on the door knob, reaching into her nightdress pocket and inserting the key into the lock and turning it. Then sighing she replaced the key and moved through into the living room, kicking a few cushions out of the way, a magazine that she had left there the night before. Then she pushed open the small swing doors into the kitchen and set about making breakfast.  
  
Yuffie liked toast and jam on a morning, a childhood habit brought about the need for complex carbohydrates to fuel her morning kata's. Leon preferred whatever he could get, so she put one some bacon, and readied the griddle to make pancakes. She liked pancakes, easily enough made, and a glass of milk.  
  
As she set about the domestic chores, she hummed, to herself.  
  
Songs came easily to her, in the time she had spent dead she had spent ages singing to herself and creating new words for old songs. Her voice wasn't bad, she was no opera singer, surprisingly Yuffie could sing very well. Smiling at the thought of it, she set out the stuff and sang softly to herself, fluffing up the pancake mixture as she did.  
  
"Straight on this long, continuing road, There is surely something to believe in," she set the bowl aside, singing softly and moved to turn the bacon, "Like a traveler in the midst of the wind, I have my eyes on the northern sky.."  
  
She smiled, and held up a the spatula, singing into the end of it and shutting her eyes as the words came pouring from her soul with sweet notes;  
  
"The passionate feelings that were beginning to fade,  
Once again sway with radiance in my chest.  
  
I don't want the tears to spill,  
As so not to lose to my weaker self.  
  
In my eyes holding on an unadorned flame,  
There are great, unseen wings..  
  
I open my arms while singing  
To embrace the perpetuity of time,  
To be tied to life," she turned, glancing aside and dropped the spatula.   
  
Leon arched a brow at her, that was all he did. Frightened and a little angry that he had the audacity not to say anything, she picked up the dropped utensil and stick it into the sink with more force than neccesary.  
  
"Finish it?" he said, softly.  
  
She glanced up from the corner of her eyes, seeing no trace of mockery on his face, and whispered softly, "straight on this long contuining road, there is surely something to believe in.."  
  
He nodded, and moved to sit down at the breakfast bar.   
  
Biting her lip, she dried the spatula, then turned the bacon again. "I must have looked a fool," she laughed softly. After all this time she found living with him unnerving. She may have given her heart to Cloud, but that sure as hell didn't mean her eyes weren't in full working order, and Leon was not one inch short of gorgeous.  
  
"No," he said quietly. She was one of the few people who were graced with more than one or two words usually, and then with methodical rites, she poured the batter in blobs onto the griddle and slowly cooked the pancakes, enjoying the silence between them as long as it lasted.  
  
Eventually, he broke it.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
Aeris turned to look at him, sliding a plate of bacon and savoury pancakes under his nose, as well as a glass of orange juice. He looked down at the food with the hint of a smile, then up at her.  
  
"What is what," she asked.  
  
"The song, that you were singing. What was it?"  
  
She pursed her lips, turning back to her pancakes and listening to the frying sound of them. "My birth mother used to sing it, I think it's an old Cetra song."  
  
"Hmm," was all she heard, then the clatter of cutlery. Bending her head, she flipped off the last pancake and set them in a stack next to her, then picking up her plate moved to the breakfast bar too and looked at Leon as he ate.  
  
He stopped, piece of bacon halfway to his mouth and they locked eyes.  
  
It went on like that for the longest time, neither noticing when the bacon fell off the fork.  
  
*ching*  
  
Aeris jumped and looked away guiltily and the toaster sang into life, ejecting the bread. With a small sense of relief, she moved away and set to buttering the bread, almost feeling his eyes on her back as she worked.   
  
What was going on, nothing made any damn sense anymore.  
  
She put the knife down when done, just in time for Yuffie strolling in like a mini whirlwind, hair a dreadful mess and wearing her usual smile, "I heard the toaster," she supplied helpfully, clambering onto a stool.  
  
Aeris smiled gratefully at her, then moved across and pushed the plate of toast at her, to which Yuffie picked up a piece and bit into it.  
  
"Mmm, take it we ran out of raspberry jam."  
  
"Yes," Aeris said, voice hardly there, then cleared her throat and avoided looking at Leon, "Strawberry's all that's left."  
  
"Oh, well, I'll pick up some more. Cid asked to see you, Aeris. Maybe you should go have a chat, incase he gets all gruff and nasty on us," she smiled, obviously thinking it a joke.  
  
Aeris smiled too, to allay her fears and thoughts mostly, "Yes I will. Thank you for reminding me."  
  
"I'll go too," Leon cut in, eyes fixed now on his plate when she turned to look at him.  
  
Her heart beat wildly, and she looked away, picking up her fork and eating in silence as Yuffie prattled on about a dream she'd had. It was nice being about Yuffie, and Leon was nice if a bit too attentive. But none of this was like home.. and she wondered what her dream had meant.   
  
Find a way? How was she supposed to do that?  
  
~ Oh Cloud~ she though, staring at her cooking. ~Where are you?~ 


	3. 2: Heartless

Chapter Two: Heartless  
He lifted his eyes from the raw mass of soul that moaned and played over each other. They swam against the tides of the luminous green sea, each opening their mouths to scream out a pain unto the world. The stench from the foul water made his nose wrinkle, and with a cautious hand lifted to waft the fumes away, Cloud turned his head.  
  
The cavern was darker than night, he couldn't make out the rock formations or twists of stalagtites or 'mites. The floor was uneven and littered with chunks of rock, sometimes dispersed between these darkness were formations that could very well be chairs, in which gods could have once sat.  
  
His hand lowered automatically, as he squinted into the darkness.  
  
"Hello," his voice grated, cold and harsh, much as it had been when he had first arrived in Midgar after the accident. That had all happened a world away though, and now he was left with the sinking certainty that he would never get that back.  
  
From the shadows a soft glow of blue flame leapt, then a figure stepped out.  
  
Taller than Cloud, easily taller and much more muscular in build, the mercenary tilted his head to stare coldly up at the face of death's warden. It was a face marked by sardonic humour, the eyes shadowed and the lips trying to quirk in hate and self invention. His head would naturally be bald if it weren't for the springs of flame he adorned it with in place of hair. He wore a strange cut of robes, the folds falling down by sandalled feet as they peeked out from under it, but instantly a sarcastic smile was in place on the face of Death.  
  
"Hey, kid, nice to see you managed to crawl your way in here, welcome, and all that stuff.." the being offered him a hand, and Cloud just stared at it without moving.   
  
"Do you think you could tell me what is going on?"  
  
Death arched a brow and hesitated, then drew his hand back with a slight laugh, sliding into one of the rock formations easily. Cloud smirked under the ragged remains of his cloak's neck wrap, he had guessed right. They were some kind of chairs.  
  
"Nice to meet you too, tiger. Let's see, before I can get down to any of the real talkies with you, Pow Wow, let's be polite and hand over names. Hi, hey there, "he flicked a hand from his temple at Cloud, mockingly, "I'm Hades, Lord of the Underworld and keeper of death. You?"  
  
"Cloud."  
  
Hades arched a brow, and then rolled his eyes, "I see, going for the whole one name mysterious thing, good for you. So, hey kid, take a seat... so, what brings you here?"  
  
Cloud frowned and turned away from the pit of souls, and held onto his left side with gritted teeth, sliding uncomfortably into a chair and trying his hardest to not let any of his discomfort show.  
  
"I escaped to the nearest place I could."  
  
"Woah, beezesus, where the hell is your left arm?"  
  
Cloud looked down, sneer forming over his nose as he studied where the appendage had been ripped off, the wound still tender and very painful. Curse those shadows.. after Aeris had been seen to safety, he had seen Tifa struggling vainly with the never ending stream of monster, and had moved to help her.  
  
But it had all been in vain, as he too got swept under, hearing the agonised scream of his childhood friend die, and with pain etched on his eyes he looked up at Hades.  
  
How had he come here? Death may have swallowed Tifa, but he lived for a reason, and that reason was protecting Aeris. He was her bodyguard after all, and as much as he loved Tifa, they had both been aware that a long time ago Cloud has given Aeris his heart for keeping.  
  
He missed everyone.. and now just as Tifa had said, on parting, he had to help Aeris find a way.  
  
"I lost it," he joked with a deadpan face.  
  
Hades blinked, then laughed, harshly barking and banged his hands on the chair rests. "Ha! that's a good one.. so, other than losing random limbs what else do you do Cloud?"  
  
"I'm a mercenary."  
  
"All your life? Bit of a profession slump I'd say."  
  
"No, not always.. I was once accepted into Soldier.. once."  
  
This caught Hades' attention and those dark flaming eyes latched onto the young mercenary as if studying him. Cloud looked right back, standing toe to toe with the disarming God.. and shivering with the pain of his arm, or rather, missing arm.  
  
"I see," the God drawled, "Well, if you have nothing pressing to do for a while, Cloud, I'd like to hire your services."  
  
"..I'm looking for someone."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"...The girl I left behind." Cloud smiled grimly, through the dirt on his face. The green swirl of light from the pool of souls illuminated his face darkly, and he could almost hear the thoughts ticking over in the Underworld' Rulers head. Almost..  
  
Then Hades suddenly stood up, and spread his hands, "well alright, look, here's the deal kid. I give you say, something to cover the loss of your arm, heal you up, give you a bit of boosting here, there, wherever. Then all you gotta do for me is get rid of someone who stands in my way, then you're more than free to go into the wide blue yonder and find your girl."  
  
"hmm," Cloud looked down at his side. It would be worth it, all of it for Aeris, for those chances offered to them.. and then he nodded. "Alright."  
  
"Deal!" Yelled the God, and stuck out his palm, to help Cloud up.. and as Cloud felt himself being moved, he looked towards the swelling pool, knowing he had not seen Aeris there.. and comforted by the chance to help her..  
  
* * * * * * * * * *  
  
Aeris walked in a kind of silence from the hotel with Leon at her side, the tall and lean warrior having not said a bare few words to her that morning after breakfast, but for a couple of grunts and the random, "whatever's." Not usually one to be frustrated by silence, in fact quite the opposite, Aeris liked silence when it could be found for contemplation. But what bothered her was the sensation he was simply thinking about her, and screwing up her nose to keep out those thoughts she stepped down the steps towards the large gate into the First District.  
  
He brushed his hair aside slightly, fixing those eyes on her briefly, then he moved without comment ahead of her so he could open the doors. She stood, impatient and watched him.  
  
He took this all so seriously, she had never seen him really smile once, and in such a fashion he reminded her painfully of Cloud.  
  
With the sharp pain in her heart, she looked up at the darkened day sky above them, past the lights and strange signs that hung, useless without wind. She guessed he was still out there somewhere, but finding him would be a hard task.  
  
"Aeris," Leon repeated.  
  
She jumped and brought her emerald eyes down from the study of the sky, to smile easily at Leon. He gestured at the open doors with something close to impatience. Of course, he could exist within silence but anyone kept him waiting and he lost his patience rather easily. Bringing her hands down from her throat, where they had crept without volition, she strolled her way over the courtyard and then slid into the First District and paused to wait so Leon could shut the gates.  
  
No one took any chances here, gates were all dealt with accordingly and with the minimal of fuss. The people who had escaped here knew the meaning of living in fear for their lives.  
  
As Leon struggled with the gate without complaint, Aeris turned her green eyes across the long pathway and to the large man who stood by the locked area of the guardhouse. He smiled at her, and she waved in return. He was a kind man, and had helped her and her protectors find a suitable place for their needs as well as a living.  
  
Behind him, she could see a moogle wander past, arms full of raw metal, to use no doubt in the making of some fantastical jewelry or other. Their strange ways interested her, but the moodle knew her well enough and waved. Their shop was above Cid's, and he often complained that they kept him awake into the night with their, "Infernal god damned banging!"   
  
Covering her smile with a hand at the thought of Cid's never ending sream of discomforts, she turned to watch Leon shut the last bit of the gate then dry wash his gloved hands off one another.  
  
"Well done, it looked heavy," she ventured, trying to get some kind of resopnse from the normally tacturn warrior.  
  
He grunted and looked away, standing with his hips cocked, "whatever."  
  
She sighed and looked back down the path, "ready?"  
  
She didn't get an answer, instead her moved easily, like some kind of predator down the path and expected her to follow. Quickly she hid another smile behind a hand and followed him, her heavy boots clicking on the path, as it meandered round the back of the Moogle shop and then led down some steps towards the accessory shop.  
  
The first district was lovely and reminded her of how Kalm Town used to be laid out, with cobbled streets, an open air cafe and the shops with balconies hung over their entrances. Even the wood effect on the outside with ;aminated wood beams coloured dark on purpose was similar.  
  
For a moment, she stepped away from following the warrior and hung by the wall above the postbox and stared out as if trying to remember hazy memories of her past..  
  
* * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"...It's been nice talking," she whispered and looked up with a skeptical eye at Tifa, trying to gauge the darker haired girl's reaction.  
  
Tifa was a lovely young woman, younger than she by about two years but no less pre-possessing. Her hair was really dark, and hung to her hips in a strange kind of ponytail, left to unravel constantly when she flew into battle. Small strands of that dark hair hung about her heart shaped face, from which the two wine dark eyes were studying the menu, rosy lips pursed in thought.  
  
Tifa favoured a strange outfit, possibly trying to find a medium between being a bar hostess and a fighter. A short skirt for work coupled with a "do-all" sleeveless shirt for battle. Heavy boots and dangerous looking hand gauntlets finished off the ensemble.   
  
The other girl looked up, "Hmmm? Going somemhere?!"  
  
"No," Aeris laughed softly and put her menu down as she fiddled with the end of her braid in the cafe chair, then looked out over the way at the memorial statue in the centre of the cobbled street, at the people who wandered to and fro from shop to home. "You just looked lost in thought."  
  
"I guess... well, I think I'll be having a hot chocolate. You?"  
  
"Oh, oh.." Aeris turned back quickly and picked up the menu, "Um.. probaby the same, sounds good to me."  
  
Tifa smiled, a genuine heartfelt smile that she found no difficulty in expressing. "I could really get to be good friends with you, hey, I'll go order, don't run away." The girl laughed and stood up, moving to find the waiter so she could lay an order in.  
  
Aeris watched her go, and then smiled. It was a beautiful day, and Tifa looked happier than Aeris remembered seeing in the past two weeks. It had taken them a long time to journey out of Midgar, but once acheived, she and the bar hostess had grown close.  
  
There would still be a hint of jealousy whenever Tifa got onto the subject of Cloud, more often than not, complaining vociferously about his behaviour somedays.. but she could tell he cared for the man however dense he could be. But she could also see in Tifa's eyes sometimes a look of sadness and acceptance. When asked about it once, the dark haired beauty had replied, "Well, sometimes you just have to accept, right?"  
  
Tifa would never know how much those words would support the flower girl later on, and unaware of future paths, Aeris smiled as Tifa came back, two heavy glasses, piled with cream in each hand. Taking one from her, Aeris moved her legs back from where they had been stretched out to let Tifa sit down.  
  
After a few sips, she looked up at Tifa, "mmm, s'nice."  
  
Tifa looked up from her drink, then laughed.  
  
Not understanding, Aeris looked down at her front, then checked her hair. Puzzled, she looked at Tifa with it written clearly in her eyes. Tifa shook her head, then pointed at her own upper lip.  
  
Mortified, Aeris picked up a handy napkin and wiped the cream off, turning a shade of crimson. "Whoops.."  
  
"Oh Aeris, I do love you.. hahaha.."  
  
* * * * * * * * * * *   
  
...and she smiled, tears springing to her eyes.  
  
"Ahem, standing there is going to accomplish nothing," the gruff but quiet voice informed her, and she let go of the wall, taking a moment to brush fingers over her eyes and compose herself.   
  
"Yes, I am sorry."  
  
She turned and looked at Leon who appraised her with a raised eyebrow, but said nothing else. Fixing her hair, self conciously, she flashed him a smile and moved towards the door of Cid's accessory shop, and pushed it.  
  
The door jangled and Cid looked up from where he was leant over the counter, usual cigarette in his mouth and winked at her easily. Aeris grinned in return, and came slowly down the steps with Leon remaining where he was by the door, arms forever folded over his chest.  
  
"Hey, now there's a sight for sore eyes," Cid smiled and flipping up a part of the counter moved round to engulf her in a hug.  
  
She couldn't help the small prickling of tears in her eyes, and hung on tight for as long as the embrace lasted. She dearly missed Cid when he wasn't about, just liked she missed Yuffie. They were he only connection to the reality they had had taken from them. Then she let her hands fall away, and folded them politely at her waist, feeling the blue half-belt and the bracelets jangle.  
  
"How are you?" she asked, in concern.  
  
"As god as can be expected, still trying to figure out a way to get those damned moogles to stop kupo-ing...or whatever.. it's annoying." Cid scratched his head and looked over at Leon, then Aeris. "Where's the brat?"  
  
The ancient fought hard not to roll her eyes, and said patiently, "Yuffie went to go get the grocery shopping today, she decided you may need a break from her charms."  
  
"Charms my ass!"  
  
"What a delightful image," Leon murmured sarcastically from the door, and Cid smirked.  
  
She took a moment to study the shop in which Cid worked, it was cosy if nothing else with a set of setee's over by a low table, an attic like opening in the ceiling. The fireplace was cold and she made a small note to remember to offer to fix that for him one day. Behind the counter were boxes of all descriptions, neatly filed away, and a strange cabinet with a chunk of crystal in it.   
  
Frowning she moved to the crystal and ran her fingers down it, then looked up at Cid, "Materia?"  
  
"God knows," he stated, and leant on the bar. "How are you then Aeris?"  
  
"I'm fine," she stopped touching it, and turned with a brave smile, the only smile she felt she could muster round about now. "I have a few bad dreams now and then, but I am still trying my hardest to research and stuff.."  
  
Cid smirked and dipped a hand into the shirt pocket, pulling out a slip of paper and handed it to her. Arching a brow, the slender ancient took it and read the words on the paper.  
  
"What...what is it?"  
  
"You guys heard of Ansem right?"  
  
Aeris glanced over at Leon then drew her gaze sharply back to Cid, and nodded, "he used to be the mayor or something close to it here, but one day he just left. He was a great man.."  
  
"Yeah, maybe. But he was into experiments, or at least thats what a few townspeople told me, and thats a page from his report."  
  
"Report?"  
  
"Just read it, Aeris."  
  
Obediently, she bent her head and studied the words, trying to etch their existance into her memory. Then she looked up curiously, "Castle?"  
  
"I think he means Hollow Bastion, that place has been open to the worst kind even when Sephiroth spent a sojourn there in his madness and limbo..."  
  
"H-heartless?"  
  
Cid looked at Leon, then at Aeris, "Can't you guess?"  
  
"I'm trying not to, but from how it describes it.. it's one of those shadow things. They're called Heartless.. I wonder why. And doors and keyholes.." she froze, and frowned, reading that part again.  
  
~ A key is inside you.. ~  
  
She then folded it up and tucked it away, into the small pouch held up by her belt. The hairs on her arms tried standing up and she grit her teeth against the very overwhelming sensation of revulsion, finally asking softly, "where are the other pages?"  
  
The pilot shrugged, "I don't know Aeris.. but whatever, you got your first clue, and well, maybe something from that will help you."  
  
"Maybe.."  
  
"I believe in you, girl," he clapped her warmly on the shoulder and she looked down at her small hands, hearing him.   
  
~I believe in..what do I believe in?~  
  
* * * * * * * * * * *  
  
He frowned, opening his eyes and sitting up. They had clothed him in his sleep, and the darkness about him covered all but the small trickle of light centred upon him, enough so he could make out what he had done to him.  
  
Nervously he lifted his left arm, and then stopped to stare at it.   
  
A metal claw stared back at him, a sharp reminder of Vincent. Had he too, now been damned to shadows?  
  
Then tilting his head, spiked blonde hair shifting as he looked over his shoulder and then he drew a sharp breath. The compact made with darkness had changed him, for in mockery of a bitter enemy, on his shoulder now stood a single bat like wing. Demon touched..  
  
Bitterly, Cloud looked down at his hands, and wished there was a better way.  
  
Tomorrow, it would all begin. 


	4. 3: Two sides to Every Story

Destroyed  
  
Chapter Three: Two Sides to Every Story  
  
And so time moved on, as it had a tendency of doing.  
  
People flowed in, every now and then to Traverse Town, bringing with them new skills and talents, each applying them as they could to working towards a better life. Throughout all this, the small group who had escaped from Hollow Bastion and the nightmares there tried maintaining a normal enough life.  
  
Leon found himself a place to train on a nightly basis, away from the girls and where he could collect his thoughts enough to focus first and foremost on his sword and the techniques that would serve him in good stead when it came to battle. It was a small cavern, situated under the streets of Traverse, with pools of water now and then, but he didn't mind that so much.  
  
Yuffie spent a lot of her time helping the new refugees. It was admirable work, she clothed them, fed them and gave them places to sleep on their first night of arrival in their shared hotel. Sometimes, the younger ones, children, were unable to sleep for the fear of the Heartless coming for them, and she would stay up, playing with them without tire until they were exhausted enough to fall asleep without complaint.   
  
Aeris buried herself into books and research. Any scrap of knowledge was not left unabsorbed, any stone not left unturned. When Leon or Yuffie came to speak with her, the would find her either with her chin in hand, leafing through yet another boring tome, or staring off into space with tears in her eyes. Leon never understood why she looked so sad, but Yuffie did.  
  
The loss of the planet, the loss of the comforting presence. Aeris could not hear it anymore, and perhaps it was this that made her so melancholy, staring with distant eyes through the windows and into the dark skies of Traverse.  
  
But she never spoke about it.  
  
Silence, after all, became her.  
  
* * * * * * * * * *   
  
The sword felt unnaturally heavy in his hands, and slowing down he let the point dip enough so it trickled across the skin of the water, ripples flowing from where it passed and dissipating. He lowered his eyes, and concentrated on slowing his breathing enough so he could return to his kata's and routines.  
  
The water chimed softly about his feet and then without volition he moved forward to a small tor in the water, climbing up it and then resting on it, hands and arms over his legs as he sat. His clothes felt bulky today, the dark blue denim jacket he wore constrictive and the trousers too baggy. Frowning he shook his head, and the hair he had grown out so long ago because Rinoa had said in passing how pretty it made him look.  
  
He almost smiled. Pretty Boy was her nickname for him, for the longest time.  
  
He remembered a lot, painful memories some and almsot wistful thoughts of yesterday others. They had been close, they had loved each other. She had rescued him from the shadows in his mind, and in so doing given him a chance to start over, to pick up the shards of his life he had thought broken forever. The bloom of early love had eventually trailed away into deep friendship, and he had pledged his undying support in whatever she chose to do now as a Sorceress.  
  
Quistis and Zell spent their time rebuilding Garden and adhering people back to their old ways and training, this time telling the SeeDs just what they were in for.. and Cid returned to Edea and managing the orphanage.   
  
Irvine took off with Selphie, to Esthar of all place. He had not heard from them until that fateful day, sat in his office at Garden, pushing through stacks of paperwork. Rinoa had been pacing the floor before him, her moods as mercurial as ever as she tried to puzzle round some problem concerning Galbadia.  
  
The day the Heartless came.  
  
They came from Esthar at first, decimating the poluation and driving those who could out of there. His father, Laguna, was among the first to die. Trying to save a woman from her burning house. What a moronic hero he could be some days.  
  
They moved from Esthar to Centra, scouring the land and not only attacking people but also monsters. Their hunger knew no bounds as they swept forward.  
  
The next logical place they would attack would be Galbadia, and as Edea and Cid escaped on the White SeeD ship towards them, losing some along the way to their attacks, Squall knew he had to make a choice. It had been the hardest of his life.  
  
They took the Balamb Garden, sending orders to the Galbadia one to do the same, and gathering up as many people as he could, they escaped to the ruins of Trabia, and the strange star shaped crater in the earth. Rinoa had insisted she could feel strong residues of magic there, and indeed, even the garden machines refused to fly over the pit.  
  
It was there Rinoa had almost drained herself dry, opening the pathway to Hollow Bastion.. and there so few remaining had escaped what ate their world. A couple of weeks passed, and they explored the castle, meeting others who came from worlds which were called "Magic".  
  
Then the Heartless had come after them.  
  
The fighting had been bitter, but he was a SeeD, he had been raised to understand that sooner or later, you die. Be in battle or not. They had all been prepared.  
  
Sighing, Leon bent his head, remembering bitterly the expression on his best friends face, a face filled with love and hope when she had pushed him away from the fighting. In those dark eyes were wings and dreams, hopes and wishes.  
  
~ "You have to go, protect her.." ~  
  
Why she had said that he would never know, but grasping the hilt of the gunblade, his first duty to his sorceress as her knight was to obey her. Looking down at her, he tried to force aside the sensation he was leaving her for dead, leaving behind everyone else for the darkness of death. But something in those eyes..  
  
~ "Go.. I will hold them off as long as my powers stay with me." ~  
  
Rinoa.  
  
Brave, wild.. and now strong. She turned like a dream in blue, Quistis lashing out her side with her whip, striking shadows in half, and the Sorceress lifted her hand. Pale strands of electricity sparked from those fingertips that had snapped his soul wide open, and without a backward look, for fear of remembering her as less.. Squall went to find whoever "her" was..  
  
"And it turned out to be you," he murmured, echoing in the cavern as he stared down at his leather clad hands. The fingers flexed easily, the material creaking under the movement. Then he trained his eyes from his hands and looked into the water as it rippled outward from his small tor.  
  
Aeris.  
  
Could anyone be blessed enough to find two angels? One he had grown closer to than anyone else, his dark angel. Rinoa. And then how she turned out.. he had never imagined.  
  
Pale skinned, she had looked over the warrior Cloud's shoulder at him. He hadn't expected the force of kindness and empathy from those glittering green eyes, he hadn't sketched in his mind the soft fall of cinnamon brown hair, nor the sweetest smile in the world directed at him.  
  
He knew then it was possible to find life after love. Possible to love again.   
  
She was perfect, smaller in build than Rinoa was, but with the same kind of drive and energy.   
  
Once he had asked Yuffie if Aeris was a sorceress, at perhaps their second week of living in Traverse Town. The young ninja had looked at him strangely, and so he had to explain to her what a sorceress was.  
  
The laughter had been only slightly mocking, and very amused.  
  
~ "No, Squall.. she's well. Aeris is a Cetra."  
  
~ "It's Leon... what's a Cetra?"  
  
~ "What-ever. A cetra is an Ancient, she's half human."  
  
~ "Half human?"  
  
~ "Well, as far as I can tell, the Cetra are basically humans who evolved a long time ago to live in natural harmony with a planet, kinda like a druid in all those fairy tales but better. She hears it and it hears her, and she draws her powers from the world about."  
  
~ "Oh..." ~  
  
Was her natural spell to bind people in love to her?   
  
He sighed and leant his head in his hands, staring down at the water and hoping for an answer, a sign, something.  
  
~ I come here everyday, to wield a sword and not to think about..~  
  
He gritted his teeth and dug his fingers into his hair.  
  
~ ... about falling in love again. ~  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Aeris pushed aside her books and leant her chin in her hands, staring out of the window at the back alleyway, where the water from the drains gurgled and people passed in motions towards their houses.  
  
After almost nine months of looking, she had found maybe another three reports, detailing Ansems work, and several journals from his soujourn in the Hollow Bastion. All of them had been deeply terrifying for her, the darkness a strange and un-used to thing that she, as a creature of light had never once set her mind to understanding.  
  
It appeared from all his words that in studying the shadows he had eventually become one himself in essence. Some small part of her tried to cling to the belief that maybe a shred of Ansem, the great man he had been, remained. But another, the realistic part of her screamed out that he wasn't alive anymore.  
  
The door to the staff room opened and she looked up as Squall walked in, brushing hair back from his face with a hand and then stopping to look at her. She smiled, hoping a blush wasn't rising in her porcelain cheeks, and looked back down at the text book.  
  
~ Anything to avoid looking. ~  
  
"How was the cavern today?" she asked softly, pushing the page over and frowning at the diagram of a Heartless, the intricate detail he had put into the antannae and the face shape.   
  
"Wet, cold. Anything in to snack on?"  
  
"Yuffie bought some apples."  
  
He grunted, and moved over the living room, stepping over her legs as she was laid out on her stomach on the floor amid a sea of books. She almost shivered as the wet toes of his boot caught the back of her calves. She risked a quick look up through her bangs at the strong shouldered back of Squall, or Leon.  
  
She didn't like to think of it.  
  
Over the last nine months he had somehow wormed his way into her heart, found a secret place she had kept and though only was Cloud's. But...  
  
Was it possible to love two people at once? Was she projecting her own love and loss of Cloud onto a man who was very real and very near?  
  
Shaking her head and denying any further thoughts of Leon, she sat up and pulled the text book with her as Leon rummaged about for food.  
  
This passage was new.. and she coughed to draw his attention.  
  
As if on cue, Leon stood up and glanced back at her as she sat with the book over her lap, her back to the setee. Her green eyes remained fixed on the words, with the small drawings and doodles in the margin of the writing. "I found something," she said quietly.  
  
"What?" The swordsman moved round the door of the kitchen and past the opening to the dining hall, to flop down with tiredness on the couch behind her. She lifted the book, and started to read what was written there.  
  
"The worlds are all interconnected with each other, each and every one however also sealed off from the other by means of a Key and the keyhole.." he voice trailed off as she suddenly realised Leon had leant down to get a better look. His arms were over his knees, left forearm brushing her bare shoulder, strands of his hair whispering over her neck.  
  
For a moment she licked her lips, trying not to blush but feeling it spread over her cheeks. Then she lifted the book with inistence and kept reading. "The keyholes within each world are hidden away. Existing to protect their worlds and others are the Seven princesses. Over time, and with each generation, the princess passes down her gift to those who will come after her, and these seven women are known as the Princesses of Heart. Inside them lies a key to unlock the doors and also to seal them. The same power to seal or unlock doors lies within the Keymaster."  
  
"Keymaster?" rumbled Leon softly, and she almost jumped at the proximity of his voice.   
  
"Y-yes," Aeris replied uncertainly, "one chosen to wield a weapon known as the Keyblade, to unlock even the sturdiest of doors and the mightiest of hearts."  
  
"Hearts... heartless." The voice grew fainter, and she looked over her shoulder at Leon who had leant back on the setee, with a reddish apple in hand. His smoky eyes focused on the ceiling, and she fond herself studying his scar, his features.. everything.  
  
~ Two sides? Two people.. I feel torn.~  
  
"Maybe whomever the Keymaster is, maybe he can stop the heartless."  
  
"Also, the Princesses of Heart.. maybe we should look into that."  
  
Aeris looked down at the heavy book in her delicate hands and bit her lip. She badly wanted to help, badly wanted to prove she had a purpose and the Planet had not been wrong in sending her back, but this was proving difficult.  
  
So much to do, so much to save.  
  
Why couldn't things be less complicated? Where had all the heartless come from originally?  
  
"I don't know.. maybe.."  
  
She jumped and looked up at Leon, as he leant back forward. Then she realised she had said her last thought out loud, and assumed a neautral expression, watching him as her thought it through.  
  
"Maybe they came through a door that had been left unlocked, and if so, who unlocked the door?"  
  
Aeris knew, and with a dread certainty, she whispered, "Ansem."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"In his reports and journals, he speaks of study and research.. what if his study had brought him to a place where the darkness existed, and this darkness was the Heartless? If so then.." she swallowed, "Then we must recover all of Ansem's reports in order to understand better the Heartless, and provide a way for the keymaster."  
  
~ He will come. I know he will. I just do. ~  
  
Leon arched a brow, obviously wondering to himself what she had just answered in her head, then nodded,"Alright, we'll start preparations then. When does 'he' get here?"  
  
Aeris shrugged and then smiled, with the first feeling of hope she'd had in a long time, staring up at the handsome man sat next to her, "I don't know. Maybe we should send a missive to King Mickey..? Don't ask, just tell him I... I have some information for him."  
  
Leon laughed, and she blinked, taken aback. He never laughed. Never. Then as he calmed, and stood up she was sure a look of pain had crossed his features.. then he left.  
  
Aeris looked down, left alone with the books.  
  
~ He laughed... for me? ~  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
Leon stopped outside the staff room and leant on the wall, feeling the chill of the plaster and the cool air from the night outside. Yuffie could be heard singing away in her room, closest to the staff room and he let his head tilt back.  
  
He had touched her, smelt her.. she was close.  
  
But something wasn't right, not yet.  
  
Why was falling in love never simple? 


	5. 4: Of Cabbages and Kings

Destroyed  
  
Chapter Four: Of Cabbages and Kings  
  
Yuffie looked up from straightening the bed linen, and smiled. The smiles came much easier for her now than they had a few months ago. It didn't feel to her now like a simple smile was somehow breaking a honoured memory of home, making their memory somehow less by enjoying her present situation.  
  
Aeris smiled back hesitantly, and moved to the chair at Yuffie's table, drawing it out and then sitting down. Her small hands folded on the table top and soft brown hair covered her eyes in the manner she always had, when thinking to herself.   
  
Frowning a little, the small worry crease appearing between her straight brows, the young ninja tucked in the corners of the sheet. It was one of her duties she had taken upon herself, the regular domestic chores. All but cooking, Aeris seemed happier when cooking and Yuffie wasn't as much of a whizz in the kitchen as she liked to think. Secretly the ninja pitied the man who would ever end up being her husband, forced to eat endless dinners of burnt, too much salt or undercooked.  
  
~ I wonder how she feels about all this. She never speaks of it to either Leon or I.. but because she doesn't say anything, doesn't mean she's hurting too.~  
  
The dark grey eyes of Yuffie watched the ancient as she looked up from studying her hands and at the small vase of white tulips Yuffie had bought from market, earlier that day. A small spot of brightness in a world where shadows were rapidly closing in.  
  
"They're very pretty.." Aeris murmured, reaching out to stroke a velvety petal with a trembling fingertip.  
  
"They don't often get tulips down at the market, and I always remember you telling me about how you grew a lot of tulips back in Midgar," she kept her tone light and conversation. If she wanted the Ancient to open and talk to her, then trying to intimidate the conversation out of her was not going to work.  
  
Aeris jerked her hand away reflexively, and from that small motion she could tell that the ancient was deeply involved in thinking about home a lot, so much so that reminders of it made her guilty. Yuffie tucked in the last corner, and shoeless as was the custom to be in Wutai homes, she backed up to study her handiwork.  
  
"I guess I'm not so bad at dealing with beds anymore. I'm still more used to sleeping on the floor," she smiled ruefully and looked over at Aeris, who was back to studying her hands. The smile crumbled a bit.  
  
~ How will she ever learn to cope if she can't trust us with her feelings? ~  
  
Letting her hands slide from her hips, the position she had adopted when studying the bed, Yuffie padded in her socks over to the table and drew up a chair across from Aeris. "You want a drink?" she asked.  
  
"No, I'm not thirsty, but thank you for being so thoughtful."  
  
"Hey, it's alright. I remember in Wutai, when I was little, my old man used to wake me up each morning with a glass of water, telling me 'drink it now, or I throw it over you to get you out of bed, sleepyhead'." she laughed softly at her own mimicking, and even Aeris cracked the smallest of smiles.  
  
"That sounds rather harsh for a father."  
  
"Nah," Yuffie leant back, feeling the smile at remembering him. "We might not have gotten along when I got older, but that's just that way it goes sometimes. When I was little, after mother had died in the attacks on Wutai by Shinra, he was all I had left in the world to cling to, and me him. It was special."  
  
"I understand, I often felt that way about Elmyra."  
  
"And the planet?"  
  
The ancient lifted those startling green eyes to stare at her wordlessly, then she lowered her face and nodded, "yes, the planet too. The planet let me speak with my birth mother, let me feel the world so I didn't feel alone... or trapped."  
  
"Do you feel trapped now?" the ninja girl asked softly, then watched as tears slid down the parts of Aeris' cheeks she could see. Silence hung there a moment, until Aeris murmured:  
  
"I don't know how to cope."  
  
"I.. well." Yuffie lifted a mailed hand and scrubbed it through her hair with a sigh, "well, maybe you should stop focusing on the past. You never used to, maybe you should rethink that outlook on life."  
  
"Everyone's gone."  
  
"No, they're not," At the vehement words, Aeris looked up and stared at her, and Yuffie forced herself to shut up.  
  
"What makes you say that?"  
  
"Because.. because no one is ever truly gone unless you hold them in your heart, right?" Exasperated the younger girl stood up and went back to the bed to sort out the top sheets and duvet.  
  
There was a silence, punctuated only by the sound of the ninja working tirelessly at the daily chores.. then arms slid round her middle and Aeris cried on her shoulder softly. Stiffening, Yuffie didn't know what to do but let the fey woman cry.  
  
"I'm sorry," choked the ancient. "I just miss them so much."  
  
Yuffie sighed. Perhaps now everything would start moving along in a much easier fashion, perhaps Aeris would be able to live, instead of clinging to the past. "So do I," murmured Yuffie, thinking sadly of Wutai, the people she had left behind, betrothed, family, friends.. "So do I."  
  
* * * * * * * * * *   
  
The sensation of simply watching him was always far better than actually, bodily being there to torment the inner demons of the man, of the puppet.  
  
He worked and toiled without complaint on his routines and exercises, at hand to the Overlord of death and decay, always offering ear and support, or guidance. He mused on these strange events, whilst eyeing the wing and claw, the shadows that pooled about the man who had once been a close enough friend and confidant for the General.  
  
His hair was still blond and spiked in the ridiculous fashion that had long since ceased to be fashionable on their world, he carried himself with pride and arrogance, and the determined glint in his eyes spoke of the strength to go through with whatever needed to be done.  
  
Oh yes, the shadows saw deeply into this one. They saw the madness he had suffered, the pain he enjoyed and stroked like someone would a lover. They carressed his ego and yet stayed firmly away form him, as if he too were outside their sphere of understanding. What drove him onwards and kept him alive made even the Heartless curdle and turn from.  
  
He knew what the puppet stayed alive for.  
  
A single wish to see perfect green eyes again, crinkled with humour at edges. To hear a sweet laugh and see forever in the flowers she grew. Pink clothed and full of sunshine, yes he needed her.  
  
A link to his past.  
  
A key to his future.  
  
Perhaps soon he should take advantage of this situation. He had heard rumours of Ansem beyond the doors of darkness, seeking a pathway into the hearts of innocence. The plots of the fabled and feared as they drew to them the beginnings of the princesses of heart, and how soon they would begin to research the ways to unlock the door.  
  
He would be there, waiting for them to do the hard work, only to snatch it from their hands at the last minute.  
  
Gloating in the shadows, then green eyes glowed and sparked with hunger.. then slid down into darkness.. and out of sight.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * *  
  
The note had been encrypted.  
  
He held it in his ermine gloved hands and studied it, his normally cheerful expression harrowed by doubt and dismay. It was early in the morning, and no doubt the Queen was abed for the night after such a long and tiring day in court, dealing with proclamations and rumours that had sparked fear amongst the populace.   
  
It read:  
  
"One who knows the Key wishes to further knowledge by sharing. Unlock your heart and come to the brink of all worlds, traverse carefully. The Ancient"  
  
Heartless.  
  
He had feared his day for a long time, and yet always knew it would come.   
  
The king glanced back at the double doors, through which his wife slept soundlessly and deeply. "I'm sorry Minne," he whispered, voice a soft trail in the night.  
  
He would depart as soon as possible. He knew the consequences, was aware of what was happening. Only now with a new rumour that yet another world had been swallowed by shadows, he dared not take any chances. The king would take only the smallest of bundles and of course..  
  
He looked over at the glass case and the strange sword inside it, shaped like a key.  
  
He would take the Keyblade that was rightfully his.  
  
* * * * * * * * * *  
  
Aeris worked hard the next few days.  
  
Yuffie seemed happier for her finally opening up to her, and even started helping with cooking, learning what she could. A new wave of refugees came in from the world outside, some dogs to whome they found a generous house owner, willing to give them some place to stay. A beast like creature that simply drifted through, snarling about finding someone named Belle, and the usual stragglers with dead eyes and hope lost on their faces.  
  
Aeris had been as kind and gentle as she could with these survivors, Yuffie seeming to cope better with the children than she could, finding games to play and distractions for them.  
  
Leon had gone after the beast creature, and talked iwth it. The talk must have been short for he returned half an hour later, sword over his shoulder and a grim expression on his face.  
  
The ancient had no time to question him, early that evening for with the breaking of another world and the seals to it, came also a visitor she had expected for some time, dressed in paltry rags and with his face covered. The figure was small and slight, carrying a strange leather scrip at it's side, as a hand gloved banged on the ringer at the front desk.  
  
She had just put dinner on the table as it rang, and with a small sigh of annoyance, for she was hungry, Aeris went to the front desk.  
  
Pushing aside the drapes, she emerged and said, "Can I.." then stopped and looked down, "help..you?"  
  
"I am looking for the one who wrote this?"  
  
The hooded figures voice was high pitched, but she took the note from the fingers that awkwardly offered it to her, and unfolded it.  
  
Reading it, she then looked back down in disbelief at the strange figure who drew back it's hood to reveal a mouse like face, and ears, but the eyes glimmered with intelligence. Knowing better than to be shocked, after all, Red was one of her best friends, or had been, Aeris offered a smile.  
  
"King Mickey, I presume?"  
  
"Yes, you are the Ancient?"  
  
"Call me Aeris," she offered, then glanced back at where Yuffie and Leon were arguing over who got the last bread roll. Perhaps offering to take him into the living room wasn't such a great idea, so she turned back and said, "We have a lot to discuss. Perhaps we should, er, go to my room."  
  
"Why no-" a great sqwuak sounded, "Oh.." The king grinned as Aeris lifted part of the counter and then dropped it when she was on the other side.  
  
"Follow me, your majesty," she said softly, then assuming he would follow, began walking down the corridor towards her red room. The king followed, the alternating clip clap of his shoes on the floor confirming it.  
  
Courteously, for she had never been in the presence of royalty but manners had never deserted the Cetra child, she opened the door for him and let him slide in before she closed the door. The king took up a seat on the edge of the bed, and clasped his hands in front of him, the strange long leather scrip propped up beside him.  
  
Aeris locked the door, and then turned to study the king a moment before asking finally, "You have seen stars going out?"  
  
"Of course, and it has finally begun to worry me for whilst I know my castle is a home to those wanderers who can find it, I also know Traverse is doing what it can."  
  
"The sad truth is, of course, that when the shadows find Traverse, if Leon, Yuffie and I cannot stand against them, then we surely will fail." Aeris looked away, trying to hide the bitterly sharp expression.  
  
Another world.  
  
Another...failure?  
  
"Leon is here?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
The king nodded and then smiled, "He is a good man, Leon. He was the first to alert me to the shadows that began around the place named Hollow Bastion, and also the fate that befell your worlds." His eyes flickered down to her skirt and she too looked down. Her small hands were deadlocked in the material of her skirt, rumpling it in anxiety. Carefully, she made herself let go and smooth out the clothing. He removed his eyes back towards her face, and she endured that analysing gaze.   
  
"I won't see this world fail," she whispered softly.  
  
"Of course not. What did you call me here to tell me?"  
  
The ancient finally let out a small sigh and moved to take a seat on the smaller futon she used for a comfortable couch. Her legs curled up to her chest automatically, a childhood defensive manouver learnt from living the streets and trying to avoid the avarice and anger of children. "More an exchange of knowledge. Can you tell me what you know about the worlds?"  
  
He lifted an eyebrow sardonically.   
  
"I mean," she hurried on, "why are people now moving between one and the other? The last time I experienced only such a breach was in death.." she trailed off, then said again, in a much softer voice if possible. "I don't understand why now people are able to move from one state to another."  
  
"Alright," chirped the king, and set his hands apart to give her some kind of visual construct with which to work. Aeris watched him intently. "Imagine these hands are say, your world and Leon's. They have never met each other, never passed into each other, yet every single world is more than aware of the possibility of other worlds brushing theirs. Right?"  
  
She nodded. Old texts and even the scholars of cosmo canyon had always spoken of the worlds being close to others, of the Promised Land somehow being an "unseen" world. She too had lived in a different world to that of Cloud and Tifa. They had existed for a world of effects. She had lived ultimately for the cause, and no matter the means she would see her end acheived.  
  
"Well," he continued, "think of it like a chain or something. One end is looped about your world, and another about Leon's. That is called connecting the worlds, through the means of doors. Well, not doors in the strictest of sense but all kind of folklore centres about the myth that if you open a door you could very well find a world on the other side. In this happenstance though, the myths are true. Doors can be opened between worlds. Someone opened the door to yours and Leon's, and the shadows called Heartless came in."  
  
Aeris tried not to pale. Perhaps Ansem had been the opener of the door to her world, but the evil of Sephiroth had still lingered, waiting for a chance to take form again, and vengeance. He had been waiting for the shadows and creatures as heartless as he was. Ansem may have though that by opening the door he was gaining power over new worlds, but he was also letting out an older, much more primal evil.  
  
"So that is what he does," she murmured.  
  
"Who?"  
  
Aeris blinked, and looked up, her cinnamon hair following the movement. The king was studying her with a tilted head and without volition she blushed, for speaking her thoughts aloud again for the second time in as many days. It was really becoming a bad habit of hers.  
  
"The Keymaster, the chosen one to wield the keyblade."  
  
"I see, I wield the Key of light." his hand patted the scrip at his side, "But it can only fight shadows, not unlock doors or hearts.. or lock them."  
  
"Then who has the Keyblade we need?"  
  
"You'll find him, soon I think. The light will not go unchallenged for this amount of time." He smiled and for a moment, Aeris felt reassured.  
  
"Your majesty, what do you know of a man named Ansem?"  
  
"I had heard he was a great scholar of his time. A man to be admired." King Mickey frowned, "You know something?"  
  
"I do. A while back, he moved out into the world and made a home at Hollow Bastion, the edge of reason and worlds, and in the shadows there he began well. Experimenting."  
  
"Experimenting?"  
  
"With Heartless, and shadows. In his research I have read, I saw hints of madness not unlike some I have witnessed before. It was dark and terrible. I think... he is meaning to unlock the final door to the darkness."  
  
"...No."  
  
"I know," she shook her head helplessly and curled her arms about her knees, feeling the skin prickle and her hairs try to stand up on end. Shivering against the terrible ideas of Ansem and her own imagination, she looked up with baleful green eyes. "But, he needs the princesses of heart to do such a thing, seven women, each with a grace and power that is the key to opening the last door. I have managed to get the locations of a few, but the rest are a mystery to me."  
  
"Ancient, I'm sure whatever you do will be a sucess, but, I also ask... may I see these reports?"  
  
She dug a hand into the pocket of her dress and unfolded the precious leaves of paper, handing them over. The king read them quickly, then frowned and looked up with a chirp of, "But there are only four?"  
  
"These are all I could find. I think the pages may be scattered and lost over the worlds, incase Ansem ever thought someone would try and trace his movements, try to stop him."  
  
"Then my path is clear."  
  
She now frowned as he got up from the bed and made his way to the door, dragging the scrip behind him, "Your Majesty?"  
  
"Don't worry about me, just keep the refugees safe and find a way for everyone, and for yourself." He grinned, hand on the door as it clicked and opened, without the key she had in her pocket.  
  
Her eyebrows went up in surprise, then she lifted a hand, "Wait, one last thing, if you don't mind?"  
  
"Of course...what is it?"  
  
"I..well.." she swallowed, "when Ansem opened the door to my world, it was also a two way thing, right? Well.. there was a man who had lived on my world, a Jenova creature. He is powerful, please, if you see him then treat him like the source of all madness."  
  
The king seemed to weigh her for a long moment with his polished black eyes, then he nodded and slid through the door. As it clanged shut, Aeris looked down at her trembling hands and sighed.  
  
Sephiroth unleashed, and visits from the king. Madness and darkness, world and unseen worlds. Causes and effects. Where she stood, she didn't know. But what she did know, was that the delicately seasoned cabbage stew she'd made would likely be eaten by now, by two locusts, and with a slight smile she got to her feet and then trailed her way from the red room, and echoes of the past.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * *   
  
He liked standing here.  
  
Something about the stars comforted him, and made this place seem more real, less of a dream he was afraid would vanish with a brush of his fingertips. His elbows were leant over the balustrade, and he smiled to himself.  
  
Sometimes he could almost hear the shouts of Zell, yelling about hot dogs or rather the accurate lack of them. Quistis would come tapping by in her boots, expression grave and serious, with reports in her hands as she murmured to herself about class examinations and schedules. Even the joyful barking of Angelo as Rinoe played endlessly with him.  
  
They were all locked inside him, memories of his world and loves and friends. Of a place he had finally come to love that had been ripped away from him.  
  
Would she be ripped from him too?  
  
"The stars are beautiful tonight."  
  
He lifted a hand and brushed some of his carefully spiked hair from his eyes to look at the beautiful girl who had joined him in watching the night sky. She was small, willowy and with a forever hint of forgiveness about her smile. Hair the colour of burnt sugar spun down her back in a slack braid neatly finished off with her dark cerise ribbon. Then she moved and looked up at him, and smiled so the corners of those angelic eyes crinkled.  
  
He smiled hesitantly back.  
  
"I don't often look at the stars," she continued, resting her hands on the rail of the balcony, and tilted her head so she could see better. He was now fully riveted on watching her, etching her into his soul incase.. incase they took her too.  
  
~ I'm so god damned insecure.. ~  
  
"But, Tifa used to tell me stories about them. She spent a lot of her childhood watching the night sky for signs and omens. I think.. if you look up for too long, then you lose perspective." She smiled sadly, then laughed into a hand quickly brought up. How he adored her laugh and those tiny gestures she did.. "Red's grand-father actually used to say that, but I agree. Looking up for too long is bad and can ruin any ideas you have of the world about you."  
  
"I like looking up, I can remember people when I do."  
  
She blinked and looked at him, then lowered her face, bangs of golden brown covering a face only some kind of dream should wear. Beautiful. Achingly, he almost reached out.. then slid an arm tentively about her waist.  
  
She stiffened briefly, then relaxed and smiled at him.  
  
~ Friendly. Maybe that's all she's interpreting me as.. Aeris, I can't compete with a memory. ~  
  
"People remain in our hearts, long..long after they are gone." Her eyes sparkled, sadly but also with acceptance. A lesson hard learned.  
  
~ If I could heal your gentle heart.. but I'm as broken as you. ~  
  
"I miss my world."  
  
"So do I," he murmured, and tried to keep the trembling from his arm. How would Irvine do this? He'd.. make some quip up and then most likely flash her his most winning smile with offer of dancing and dinner..  
  
That wouldn't work. Aeris wasn't your everyday kind of girl and neither was he an Irvine. More like a stone monolith for all the talent he had in chatting girls up. She leant against him and he shut his eyes.  
  
"I wonder," she whispered.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I used to hear the Planet, it's song. My mother's voice, the chorus of the Cetra and hymns of days gone by. I lived in a dream, in a world apart from others." She looked up with shining eyes, "I gave my heart away once.. but it.."  
  
"I understand."  
  
Her eyes smiled when she did, and suddenly he felt like for once in his tongue tied life he'd managed to be as smooth, if not smoother than Kinneas. And he smiled fully in return.  
  
To his surprise, her hand touched his cheek. "You have a beautiful smile, don't hide it."  
  
Leon swallowed, and lifted his free hand to curl it over hers, "I won't, not from you."  
  
"Good."  
  
~ Do...it. ~  
  
Slowly he bent his head, and kissed her on the lips. The skin felt soft and warm, tasting ever so slightly of honey. She smelled sweet, like her nature and for a moment his head span. Her hand tightened on his cheek, on his fingers, but she didn't pull away.  
  
Moving back slightly, he touched the tip of his nose to hers, and studied her as Aeris opened her green eyes.. and smiled.  
  
"Don't ever hide from me, Leon," she whispered warningly.  
  
"Squall. Call me Squall."  
  
She seemed to hesitate, then softly whispered, "Squall," as he leant down for another close cradled kiss under the stars.. 


	6. 5: Unlocked

Destroyed  
  
Chapter Five: Unlocked  
  
~ But...those days are gone... ~  
  
She laid herself down, admiring the sky. It was lit with vivid flashes of red and orange, sinking down into romantic purples and then the darker black. Down where the sky met the ground she could see stars, twinkling points of light that shone down on the earth under her body. Her hands were spread fingered in the fragrant grass and the sweet smell brought her lip quirking upwards.  
  
She loved the scent of the earth and the sweet slumber it gave her when she rested out under the pregnant moon. The songs of nature and the sounds like dripping honey in her heart.  
  
She wanted nothing else in the world.  
  
Sighing she let her head tilt back and eyes slide shut against the vision of night's beauty. She was in heaven, in the promised land of her dreams. They had stopped here, on the way to Nibelheim, Tifa was making dinner tonight so she expected something robust and packed with carbohydrates. Potato stew and slices of tender beef, with apples or some fruit for dessert. Then everyone would gather round the campfire and tell stories, plan the day ahead and even try to find some companionship with each other as their days grew increasingly bleaker.  
  
She had seen it.  
  
He was frustrated by his need to speak out, to speak up, but the words kept sticking in his throat or in his soul. Whichever it was, she knew the Cloud they saw now wasn't the real him. She knew the real him, the Planet gave her discreet pointers to the nature of the man she called Strife.  
  
Strife by name, Strife by nature.  
  
Once they got out of Nibelheim, perhaps she would be able to talk to him and Tifa. Infact, since that day in Kalm where Tifa had watched him with such pain in her luminous eyes, Aeris had been more and more convinced that Cloud wasn't exactly lying to them, but more to himself.  
  
Lies, once out of hand, did more damage than any conjured spell could, than any fateful summoning or words spoken in harsh haste. She didn't want to see her friend destroyed.  
  
She wouldn't fail him.  
  
"Thinking, again?"  
  
Smiling in brilliance, she opened her green eyes a crack and looked up at the bright blue ones that were suspended over her. Cloud grinned at her, leant over her with his quiffy hair blocking out the view of the moon.  
  
"Oh, Cloud," she said, mimicking being cross, and rolled aside onto her stomach, then patted the fragrant grass next to her.  
  
Wordlessly the warrior sunk down onto the grass, and let his gauntlets rest beside him, the bracelets chiming against the metal rings as they fell. He smiled at her, and she was sure her heart would stop, then he shifted his focus and looked out over the rise of the hill to where the sea sparkled in the distance. Behind them, the sounds of campfire merry making seemed to fade, and the world existed for only them.  
  
"So," she said softly.  
  
"So," he agreed, and plucked at the grass. It came away easily and with idle fingers he began to plait them into a strange weave.  
  
She watched him for a moment, then rested her chin in her hands and studied the sparkle of the far off sea, and smiled. "I love this place, Cloud."  
  
"So do I. I grew up here after all, running in the grass and dancing in the waves down by the shore. It was a lonely childhood, but.. I don't remember being too unhappy." He half smiled and the blue eyes slid aside to look at her, "what about you?"  
  
~ What about me? ~  
  
"I..."  
  
~ Needles and drugs, tests and scratches.. scathing insults, being treated as a sub-human... escape. ~  
  
"It wasn't so bad I guess. I had mom, and that was all I really needed. And my flowers." She brushed her fingertips over the surface of the grass, the very verdant weed seeming to thrive under the touch and grow greener. Magic.  
  
A magic all of her own.  
  
"Yeah," he murmured, "well, now you have me."  
  
She blushed and looked away. Did he understand what he was saying? What it meant to someone as broken as she was? A life she could never call her own, a promise to fulfill and a duty that would outshine anything she could ever do on her own.. Alone.  
  
"I...I guess I do."  
  
"Why do you say it like that?"  
  
Aeris bit her lip and looked down, with a half smile, then shook her head. It was so beautiful, this place, this moment, this man and this feeling burning inside her. Passionate feelings swayed inside her.. and she tried to keep her failing grip on reality.  
  
"...I don't want to die," she whispered softly, "I just want this to last."  
  
Cloud said nothing, but the warm and very real fingers that interlaced with hers spoke enough comfort for the both of them, and softly she let her heart be unlocked...  
  
~*~  
  
She had done what was for the best.  
  
The marble was too cold under her soft skinned knees, the material of her dress providing no comfort. If she could just do this one task then they would all be saved and she and Cloud would have forever.. and then everything would be alright.  
  
Her hands trembled, clasped infront of her, mind locked into praying and wishing. It drained her strength and stole her magic, killed her voice and numbed her spirit but no matter what happened she clung to that single grain of hope and truth. That somehow she could save him, save Tifa.. save everyone.  
  
~ Because. I.. I thought it would make everything right. ~  
  
Slowly it answered with a small wail, and she smiled, looking up.  
  
He was there, with his sword hanging slack at his side and an expression she had never thought to see on his handsome face, just.. scrawled there. It made him ugly and altogether too mortal, and for a moment her expression froze in fear.  
  
She tried opening her lips to whisper softly..  
  
~ I've done it. We're safe. You're saved. I've...done it.. ~  
  
The stab was unexpected and a whoosh of air came from her lungs as she pitched forwards, hands catching herself on the floor with a cold sting and slap. The pain seemed to spread and ooze down her back, warm and thick. With lips numbed by shock, she tried lifting her head, as a soft sigh came from her lips in shock.  
  
The blade was drawn from her, and the world whirled about her, Clouds face becoming the sky, a whisk of blade overhead and the distinct impression of darkness.  
  
"Cloud.." she gasped, as from her hair fell the childhood gift and remembrance of her mother, clattering down the steps and chiming on it's way down towards the water, and it's grave. It shone though, shone like a star from the corner of her eye, landing in the sea and for a moment she forgot where she was.  
  
The sea and the stars and the night so beautiful..  
  
Eyes dimmed by tears, she managed a final smile for her hero, for the man she had given her heart away to.. and slowly, slowly.. she drowned in darkness.  
  
* * * * * * * * * *   
  
The scream jolted him from his sleep, and without a second thought he had fingers curled about the gunblades handle, drawing it closer to him. Shifting about on his single bed, (he believed sleeping in a double bed on your own only caused sleeping problems later on in life) he let the chill metal of the blade whisk past his thigh, then frowned, switching on the light with a quick murmur of a spell.  
  
His room was empty, but for him and his rumpled bed, clothes neatly folded on the chair by the desk. The screaming had stopped, but the sheer terror in it had been enough to set hairs on his arms to standing.  
  
Neglecting to pull on slippers or more decent clothes than his boxers and white shirt, he pulled open the door and glanced into the corridor. No one was about tonight, Yuffie most likely snoring and sound asleep. As much as the young girl tried to insist she was able to keep up with him, she was more often than not tired out from the daily training.  
  
Frowning, he let the door shut softly behind him, the catch in the lock snicking softly closed and then putting the gunblade on his shoulder, he began moving down the corridor and towards the staff room.  
  
A sniffing stopped him, and his smoky eyes glanced aside at the red painted door to Aeris' room.  
  
"Aeris?" he said in a low voice.  
  
"..w-who... I-I'm alright.."  
  
"Did you scream?"  
  
"I..did I? I'm sorry, it was just..a bad dream."  
  
Looking down at the handle of the door, he found it slightly ajar and burnt about the the lock, but concern for Aeris' well being was his ulterior motive than finding out why the lock was burnt and jammed open. His hand closed on the jamb and he pushed it open.  
  
Aeris was half curled up in bed, eyes red rimmed from crying in the half dark and her soft hair a disarrayed tumble about her oval face. Beautiful even in mournful crying, he mused.  
  
Propping the gunblade up against the bed, Leon moved closer to Aeris, by sitting on the edge of the bed. He didn't want to frighten her, even if the memory of their shared kiss still lingered like sweet moisture on his lips, sweetness he doubted he could live without.   
  
The ancient kept her face turned from him, fingers wiping at her eyes desperately and her whole frame shaking with the tears she could not allow to flow from distressed eyes. The stress of her nightmare still lingered, hollow and bitter, raging against the light she had only managed to half conjure despite her usual talent with magic spells.  
  
"I didn't mean to wake you, I'm sorry.."  
  
"What did you dream?" he asked softly.  
  
She shook her head, "Old memories, bad memories."  
  
~ Idiot. She had died once, remember? ~  
  
"About dying?" Leon attempted to keep his tone light, and when the left hand tried sneaking up again to wipe tears he caught it, and held it down, thumb rubbing over the back of her hand and feeling the tendons that were lined up there casually. So soft.  
  
"Y-yes.. other things too."  
  
"Tell me about it, you can talk to me."  
  
"I.." she turned and stared at him, and he smiled, aching for the pent up pain she would never truly be able to express out of concern for everyone else's feelings. Then she ducked her head, hair falling in a soft shower with the movement, strands picking up the light and burning with the soft cadence. "It was a while go, I was stabbed. I.. I didn't want to die. I wanted to save everyone, so no one would have to fight anymore."  
  
He stayed silent as she shook again with fresh tears. "I...I told him everything would be okay, that we'd all be together and it would be over soon and I lied... and then paid for it."  
  
"Aeris.."  
  
Quietly she whispered in a broken voice, "I failed them.. Twice."  
  
With a very slight movement, Leon drew the girl into his arms and buried his face in her hair, just holding her close as she cried and in his despair over her still somehow clinging to Cloud.. felt elation at having her in his arms.  
  
~ Some Bodyguard.. I'll protect her now. Because.. ~  
  
* * * * * * * * * * *   
  
"Hey Sora, catch.."  
  
The young boy blinked, turning as a log was thrown at his midsection, and he went down with it in a heap of feet he had yet to grow into and gangly limbs. The sand showered into his hair and past his eyes, and he smiled.  
  
The sun was shining.  
  
The sea was softly calling and splashing on the beach.  
  
And Kairi and Riku, his best friends, were with him.  
  
Riku stretched out on the sand next to him. He was taller than Sora by a good few inches, and built much more powerfully, the kind of build that would see him being bulkier in later life. His hair was prematurely white, and his eyes that were crinkled in sharp humour a bright turquoise.  
  
"I'm tired out," he murmured to Sora, who nodded in return.  
  
"Come on lazy bum, I'll race you to the beach house.." chirped Kairi, a girl tall for her age with a sleek bob of reddish brown, and bright blue eyes. She was possibly the prettiest thing Sora had ever seen, and he was more than half in love with her, though he kept such thoughts to himself.  
  
"No way," groaned the older boy, digging his hands into the sand, and Sora turned aside to stifle a grin at this. Every single day was the same, she always knew exactly how to get their competetive streaks flaring. However, this time he was determined not to lose, and slowly bent his knees.  
  
"One, two, Three... Go!"  
  
He glanced at Riku with polished sapphire eyes.. and Riku at him.  
  
Then in a shower of sand that like falling diamonds caught the sun, both boys got up, and began to race down the length of the beach, towards the house, with a laughing Kairi breathlessly following them..  
  
Life was..perfect.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Later that day, Aeris happened to be doing the shopping for a change, but her own tastes for shopping ran slightly different to Yuffie's and inevitably she spent a lot of time just talking to the people as they were settling in, asking if they needed help with anything and giving up her time to help them if required. The words, "sweet girl" seemed forever imprinted upon her, and as that nature implied she did everything with a smile to ease the burdens they suffered.  
  
Finally, after getting a few moments to herself in a town that never seemed to sleep she found herself walking through the third district and past some power cables that had been ruptured. Tilting her head, for even on her own world she had seen very little of electricity, made by mako. It sparked when she outstretched her fingers, and with a muffled cry she drew her hand back sharpish.  
  
"Alright, won't be doing that again, Aeris," she murmured to herself with a wry smile.  
  
Brushing the hand down the side of her pink skirts, she turned about and let her green gaze wander up past the slight smoky mist covering the stairs towards the empty doors, and then back to the plaza and the fountain that bubbled there. It was very quiet today.  
  
Her other arm brought up the book it was holding and she cradled it to her chest. It was a small purple bounde book, with crinkled fabric cover. In it she had recorded her observations and a few thoughts and even poems. In the book she found she could make sense of the strange things she kept unearthing about the great man and scientist Ansem.. and it also brought her closer to the shadows.  
  
She kept walking towards the steps up to the second district, head bent in furious thoughts. They just kept crowding in there, no matter how hard she tried to push them out, thoughts of home and future and the strange sensation that she should be doing something, but *what* eluded her as of yet.  
  
Her footsteps were heavy, the boots striking the floor with a bit more force than she intended. They rang out across the empty plaza, and apart from the tinkling of the fountain and the faint whisper of maybe a brush over the floor she heard nothing else..  
  
A brush?  
  
Blinking, she slowed down, moving her arms from being wrapped about the book tightly, to having her fingers pressed to the books sides, white knuckled. There had been no sweeper when she had last scanned the vicinity, and with a quick lick of her suddenly dry lips, Aeris glanced over her shoulder.  
  
It was empty.  
  
~ Okay.. now I'm just trying to scare myself. ~  
  
"H-Hello...?"  
  
Her hair tickled the nape of her neck, but she jumped and clapped her left hand to the back of her neck, the bracelets jangling in fury. It stung, and she laughed, the kind of relieved hysterical laughter people do when they realise they are only chasing daydreams.   
  
"Oh I'm so silly.." she laughed, shaking her head in rueful amusement, more at herself than anything.  
  
"I wouldn't say so."  
  
Her scream echoed over the buildings at the voice just by her ear, and with instinct taking over, she turned and swung the book full tilt at whatever had spoken. Her only driving thought was, what if it were Sephiroth? The book connected with something, and there was a solid thud and a disgruntled hmph.  
  
Trying not to cower, she kept the book up close to her face and peeked round it, ignoring the shaking in her legs.  
  
On the floor, almost flat on his back, was an elderly man in blue robes and a bent hat also of the same blue. His hair was long and white, his beard too, longer than any she had seen before. A battered leather bag sat on the floor next to him, with a shotish stick poking from the side of it, with hairs protruding from the end of it.  
  
~ Now I'm beating up old men.. some kind, gentle person I am! ~  
  
Mortified, and redder than she would have ever thought possible over her cheeks, the very heat searing her skin, she dropped the book and moved immediately over to the old man who was, by now, chuckling softly and slapping his knee like it was the greatest joke in the world.   
  
"I'm so sorry! Did I hurt you?!"  
  
His old hand closed over hers and she blinked, looking down.  
  
Magic.  
  
It burnt her skin, but didn't. It was as if she was suddenly thrown into ice cold water, the shock of it made her gasp and then she looked up at him. Kindly blue eyes twinkled at her from under very bushy white brows.   
  
"Magic," she whispered helplessly.  
  
"Of course, what else do you expect of a magician? Give me a hand up then, be a good girl," He tapped the back of her hand and she blinked again, like a trance was shattered from her as he removed contact.   
  
Still stammering apologies, she hooked hands carefully under the old mans elbows and helped him to his feet then watched in besmusment as he fussily sorted out his robes, then messed with his hat. Finally satisfied, he looked back at her.  
  
"What's your name, young one?"  
  
"Aeris Gainsborough."  
  
"Ah," he nodded, "I'm Merlin. Practitioner of magic, and peddler of secrets. Owner of Mysteries and Scourge of the dark.. oh my, where's my wand?"  
  
It was all the Ancient could do not to let her jaw drop. She had heard rumours and legends concerning Merlin, and then with a soft smile, she bent down and picked up his wand, marvelling at the feel of the soft, smooth wood. It too, brimmed with magic both strong and soft. Then as she stood back up, she handed it back to him.  
  
His old hand closed over it, "Thank you, Aeris."  
  
The jolt made her draw her hand back, biting down a small yelp.   
  
His eyes only twinkled, but his voice belied the dark humour in those eyes, "You too practice magic."  
  
It wasn't a question, no matter how she tried to twist it over in her mind, so she nodded in affirmation. He already knew... what else he knew was better left off in idle musings.  
  
"So.." His eyes studied her, drawing conclusions, "What do you do?"  
  
"I.. I came here when my world fell to the darkness. I am studying Ansem and the Heartless in a hope to save other worlds." She glanced down at the book, and so did the magician.  
  
"Ah I see. Well, my world too was destroyed. They came in through the Keyhole and changed it, destroying it eventually." The eyes were engulfed by bushy brows as he frowned. Aeris watched him, clasping hands behind her back as she had a habit of doing. "Careful, mind you, standing too close to the shadows can make you forget yourself."  
  
"I know."  
  
Something in her tone made him look up with worry in his blue eyes, then he smiled, and the beard moved with it. She smiled back, trying to shut emotions from her face, something she wasn't the greatest at. The dream of Sephiroth still lingered too much for her liking.  
  
"Well, I am always more than willing to help, just say the word.. I have occasional living quarters over there," he pointed the wand at the strange door with a fire sign on it, "and I wonder, could I prevail upon you for some help?"  
  
"Of course," she said immediately, and the old man bent down, opening the small leather bag and digging about in it.. then moments later he straightened up and tugged what looked to be a large and very tattered book from his bag. She frowned. It seemed impossible for a book so large to come from a bag so small. He gave her no time to dwell on it though, pushing the book into her hands.  
  
"Can you find someone in town to repair this for me? It fell into my possession and is so ruined it's a wonder the poor thing still exists."  
  
"Oh, I'm sure Cid can do it."  
  
"Well, I have a few things to do, but it was nice meeting you. Don't be afraid to find me for advice," he tapped his hat with his wand, and then picking up his bag walked off down the stairs and round towards the strange door.  
  
Left halfway on the stairs, Aeris watched him go, then looked down to her feet where her book still lay. Sighing she put the heavy old book under one arm, and then picked up her purple notebook, and flipped through it to make sure none of her work was spoiled. Then gasped.  
  
Written on the next clean page in her book, in neat red ink and cursive script were the words, "I saw the Key in you. You're getting closer.. heed your dreams."  
  
Trembling, she put the book against her chest, and then covered it with the old book. With one last scan, noting the old magician had vanished beyond his door, Aeris turned and began walking at a faster than normal pace, towards the first district doors..  
  
* * * * * * * * * *   
  
The laugh echoed and they cringed.  
  
He came here more often now, to look at them and through them. His face held no fear and his soul only hate, hate and madness.  
  
Even they cringed from it.  
  
But soon Kingdom Hearts would come, eternal shadows such as Ansem had promised them.  
  
He spoke often of wanting to meet Ansem.  
  
He sometimes spoke of witches, pirates and gods.. or places they didn't know. They had lost memory along with hearts.. Heartless.  
  
"Pitiful," he said scathingly and often, his face drawn and brooding over the over-sized sword.  
  
Darker and darker, they grew stronger and bolder.  
  
And he only taunted them with his blazing, green eyes.  
  
With the turning of a single key.. they were Unlocked into yet another world.  
  
And he laughed.. 


	7. 6: The Key in You

Destroyed  
~  
  
Chapter Six: The Key in You  
~  
~  
  
~ There's something inside me, which pulls beneath the surface,  
Consuming, confusing..  
This lack of self control I fear is never ending,  
Controlling, I can't seem...  
To find myself again..~ ( Crawling, LP )  
  
* * * * * * * * * * *   
  
He watched him as he spoke.  
  
He kept imbuing his words with such prophetic interest, trying to impress upon his new right hand man the seriousness of the contract they had agreed to and forever taking him amongst the Coliseum columns and showing him his next target as he worked and sweated.   
  
He did not want to break the contract with the strange god who had given him another chance, however tainted and filthy that chance was. No matter if he had ruined his body and shattered him open in the process.. he owed the God a tithe of thanks, and would pay up in whatever way Hades saw fit to ask of him.   
  
As those large hands moved expressively, he found his blue eyes wandering to the burly figure of the man he was assigned to kill at any cost including casualties.  
  
He looked innocent, despite the strength that had even the ex-soldier amazed and wondering at it's full capacity. The golden dark hair was slicked back and held in rein by some kind of circlet, his clothes leather, skirted to leave legs bare but for wrap up sandals, a small blue cloak and embossed breastplate finishing the ensemble.  
  
~ I swore the killing would stop.. ~  
  
His brilliant blue eyes tightened in pain.  
  
~ I swore, I'd stop it, because of her.. ~  
  
Cloud sighed and kept his eyes on Hercules even as his mind drifted back to the day when he and Tifa had sat on the crest of a hill, close to Kalm and stared out in wonder at the ruin that had been Midgar, at how quickly life had come and invaded the skeleton of the place they had called home for so long.  
  
Her face was tilted in wonder, slim neck catching the light, sun sparkling in the hidden red of her dark hair and turning those large ruby eyes, fiery. Her hands were splayed out on the ground, gloveless. He could see the scars and bruises, the cuts and dents she had earned by fighting in the last battles. Wild and free.  
  
She turned to smile at him, and helpless he smiled back.  
  
~ When will we meet her then? ~ she had asked.  
  
Tifa, wild and free, impetuous and driven by primal emotions.. and in those ruby eyes he could see grief. Raw, untamed and true grief. His own gauntleted hands clutched at his knee, and turning he studied the horizon and the temples of Midgar, the shadows and patches of dappled sunlight.  
  
~ When she returns to us. ~  
  
~ You what?! ~  
  
He glanced at her through strands of his own blond hair, and saw the shock written there. The Promised Land, land of the dead, resting place for memories. But also.. something in the last had told him, she was still there, still...waiting.  
  
~ She'll come back when she's ready.. when It's ready. ~  
  
~It? ~  
  
~The Planet.. ~  
  
Tifa looked out, back over the fields, eyes drawn to the sprinting figure of Red. ~It's over, finally.~  
  
...The end had come.. for one strand of the story. Bitterly narrowing his blue eyes, Cloud scowled so hard at the broad back of the young man that he turned, feeling the malice. Slinking back into the blue of the shadows, in the small ginney in which he stood with Hades, Cloud looked down at the sand between his booted feet and tried not to snarl at it, tried not to curse the air about him.  
  
The story was still going on.  
  
He was caught up far beyond the simple story of one world.. now every single one was in jeopardy, and here he was, playing poker with the god of the dead... so to speak. He didn't even know if he liked where he was, if this was right. The cold metal of his new arm twitched and he frowned, glancing down at it and smirking ever so bitterly.  
  
~ You would scream if you saw me now, Aeris. I'm coming.. hang in there. ~  
  
"...isn't that right, Kid?"  
  
Alert suddenly, his attention snapped up from contemplation of his arm to the half sneering visage of Hades. The god studied him with one of his "go with the flow" looks, and so he just shrugged and murmured.  
  
"I don't really care."  
  
"Of course not," the god pressed a hand to his brow, "of course, don't let me forget. You don't care... alright, alright... here kid, let's go get a mocha, do some chit chat and you tell me what's eating at you, eh?"  
  
The blue hand found home on his shoulder, and he didn't even bother to shrug it off. "You can talk all you want," he said softly, and moving forward, stepped into the courtyard, avoided the scrutiny of the strange goat creature, stepping his way firmly over to the gates outside.  
  
Behind him, Hades snorted, and folded his arms. "Some serious emotional problems that squirts got.."  
  
Deeper in shadows, a pair of luminous green eyes narrowed, and soft laughter filled the shadows... eerie and mocking. Turning, Hades put a hand to his neck where even his hackles were trying to stand...and saw no one but his own imagination..  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
By now, so deep into her study, it was all beginning to be double dutch to her.  
  
She wasn't supremely confident about her own studying skills, let alone an ability to interpret what she found into anything remotely understandable. Back home, when trying to explain difficult concepts to people who couldn't "feel" what she did  
  
She smiled slightly, pink lips tilting in her exsquisite little grin she saved for remembering the past. Barret's face had worn an expression of horror, or something close to it on the day she had sat him down, halfway through the canyons to try and explain to him about earth sciences and the planet and how it spoke to her. Confusion, more than understanding, seemed her innate ability.   
  
The books she read were no less confusing in their portrayal of the complex themes about which all the worlds revolved. But, she mused to herself as she curled deeper into her soft bed with the book perched on her lap and knees drawn up to support the back of the book, however confusing the book was she was determined to grit her teeth and carry on.  
  
The book was one she had borrowed from the main library that morning, upon returning the sheaf of books she had spent the last week devouring, digesting each and every morsel of information. Aeris personally believed she was getting closer to a conclusion, closer to some kind of epiphany concerning the fate of the worlds.. and maybe the fate she would face.  
  
She softly read aloud, "The Door of all doors, secretly locked inside.. is opened.. no no.. is unlocked by those who hold the keys to Kingdom Hearts inside them. Seven women, born pure of soul and bright of...destiny?"   
  
Her hands fingered those words, 'Bright of destiny'.  
  
"Not me then," she sighed.  
  
Her destiny was already tinted in darkness. Somewhere along the path she had slipped and fallen into the shadows that pressed ever strongly about her, and she floundered, unable to find a way out.  
  
It had happened softly at first, hunted by those she had escaped from, running from a painful past and trying to ignore the burning in her heart. She thought she'd found some peace in the sanctuary of her church, and later with friends. Friends.. something she was unused to having.  
  
She did all she could for them, and in doing so drew herself closer and closer to the light of Holy. To the innate power of her people.  
  
~ Remember, the closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes. ~  
  
Wise words.  
  
"Sephiroth.." Aeris whispered, shutting her eyes in pain and trying to stop the prickle of tears behind her eyelids. Bitter hate always surged through her when remembering him, and overwhelming pity. Killer of her life, of her hopes and dreams and the nightly monster that stalked her dreams and laid her to sweating and shivering with the rise of the sun each morning.   
  
She hated thinking about him.  
  
She bore no scars now, the Planet had literally given her new form again with the rebirth of her soul. But Aeris could not help but brush fingertips across the senstive skin of her stomach, concealed under her pink dress and in doing so she bit her lower lip. Almost hard enough to draw blood.  
  
Shaking herself mentally, her eyes flickered back to the words on the page.  
  
Kingdom Hearts.  
  
What was that? Why were women used, not men? Why hearts? Why keys? Hearts... Heartless?  
  
Scowling, unable to find answers, only reams of questions upon questions, she let her legs slide down and the book fall with them. Perhaps she should talk with Leon..Squall. He would probably be able to find some sense in all this chaos that kept afflicting her.  
  
Squall.  
  
She smiled again, eyes sparkling at the very thought of him. Inside however, a tiny voice admonished silently.  
  
~What about Cloud?~  
  
Cloud...Squall. Another pretty mess she had gotten herself into and how this one was going to unravel itself she didn't know.. but even if this all went wrong she held onto one simple belief.  
  
If the Planet had brought her back, then it was because she was going to die again.  
  
In itself, that would solve..all problems.  
  
Ignoring bitter tears down her cheeks, Aeris stared at the book.. then with shaking hands that bespoke her quiet resolve, she drew the book back towards her.. and bent her head haloed in the dim light of the room back to reading.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
The two men circled each other.  
  
How long they had been walking like this was a mystery.  
  
One was shrouded in black, bands of white here and there on his clothes and wearing heavy boots on his feet. His hair was platinum blond and mostly slicked back behind him. Two bangs however remained to cloud his face and hang down in front of blisteringly green eyes like fangs of some unremembered dragon. A sword, long and cruelly sharpened to disgusting accuracy was trailed on the floor behind him as he moved, the blade sending sparks off into the air as it was dragged.  
  
The other wore baggy trousers and boots much like the other's. As his heels clicked on the floor, his gloved hands twitched nervously about the edges of his tailored coat, embroidered beautifully on the back with a scene of flames and a bird rising up from the flames. His skin was a soft bronze, unlike the black warriors porcelain skin, but his hair was just as pale and slicked back, if not as long or well tended. His eyes were golden, tawny and watching the warrior indifferently.  
  
The tailored man spoke first; "You will not have what you seek."  
  
The black warrior replied, tilting his head at an angle of sardonism, the lips quirking viciously, "How do you know what I seek, what I want?"  
  
"Kingdom Hearts is mine, and mine alone."  
  
"What you seek.. hearts.. hearts have power."  
  
"Yes, yes they do.."  
  
"Then... no matter."  
  
The tailored man snarled, much to the black one's amusement, "You hide in the shadows as well as I.. who are you?"  
  
"Who are you? I am a General, A demi God, a Warrior and Mage and bearer of shadows and chaos..."  
  
"I am the Heartless, I am the fountain of all knowledge and of truth.. I understand!"  
  
The black warrior stopped, blade screeching and setting teeth on edge. The shadows about them quailed, and even the Tailored one drew back in horror as he threw his head back and laughed with a kind of abandon only madness may truly bring.  
  
"You... only wish. She understand's more than you."  
  
"She? Who is 'She'?"  
  
"Listen well.. seek your Kingdom Hearts, seek to your own 'hearts' content. But when you are gone, when all has faded away... I will remain and have my chance again.." The shadows moved, closing about him with a wail and just as suddenly, the warrior and his sword no longer was.  
  
Shivering, Ansem frowned down at a gloved hand and watched his fingers flex then closed his hand into a fist. Bitterly he snarled, "Kingdom Hearts will soon be mine!"  
  
Shadows moaned, and sinking down he lost himself amid them..  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"I'm here!" she yelled, kicking open the door with two paper cups, one in either hand and two paper bags hanging by straps from her left wrist.  
  
Groaning, the man behind the fliptop of the counter looked over at the bubbly girl, and then shook his head. Nope, nothing had changed that girl's damn chirpy, nothing-gets-me-down attitude. It's like she wasn't human and after spending more time than was comfortable around the teenager he was beginning to think she was some kind of monster, or genetic mutation. It just wasn't damn natural!  
  
Yuffie moved over, down the steps and to the seating area where the small coffee table was and put the cups down carefully, then removed the bags easily from her wrists and smiled up at Cid.  
  
"Cheer up grumpy guts, you should look happy to see me!"  
  
Cid tried...and failed to smile back, merely flashing his teeth at her, then bending his blonde head back towards the figures he was trying to tally up. He hated doing tax but hell, even in this place he needed to do the returns. Life went on, if nothing else.  
  
"Yeah, short stuff, so happy my teeth hurt."  
  
"I got you a cup of coffee, I know what you're like in a morning.. or afternoon... or evening for that matter, heh."  
  
"Heh, funny," he said sourly, and looked up as Yuffie slid the paper cup onto the counter by him, the aroma of bitter coffee curling up his nostrils and setting his stomach to a pleasant growl.  
  
His eyes drifted to Yuffie's face and she grinned back at him. Perhaps it was time he stopped thinking of her as such a kid. After all, the Planet had chosen her as Aeris' protector now the Ancient was returned to the worlds. She had fought valiantly in many a battle and even to the point of her own life whenever the heartless chose to try and invade Traverse. Small scars laced the Ninja's neck, a testament to their last hours in Hollow Bastion. The scarf she wore hid most of them, but tips of wire thin scars peeked from the top of it in a horrific reminder.  
  
"Thanks," he said, in a much softer tone of voice.  
  
It clearly put Yuffie off-beat for a moment and the dark purple eyes faltered in brightness. Then she smiled and shrugged, moving back for her own drink.  
  
Cid sighed, and straighted up, putting hands on the middle of his back and arching to get the "cobwebs" out of there, as he liked to say. "So, how's things?"  
  
"Pretty quiet," Yuffie opened hers and sipped greedily. Chocolate, if Cid knew her well enough. In spite of her rigorous training the girl still owned a sweet tooth. Yuffie blew on the hot liquid after a small yelp, and looked up at Cid, "Leon spends a lot of time avoiding Aeris, and Aeris spends a lot of time in her books."  
  
"Has she found anything else?"  
  
"A few things... bits about Keys and doors and Princesses."  
  
"Hmm, sounds like riddles to me. I hate riddles," Cid reached for his coffee and opened it. Yuffie obviously owned a good memory however, black and no sugar. Just how he liked it.  
  
"Yeah, I understand," she nodded in agreement.  
  
"So, why is Leon avoiding her? Thought the guy was meant to be her protector like you?"  
  
The girl frowned and shrugged, "Dunno.. I think he likes her."  
  
Cid laughed, and put the cup down, "well of course he does, it's Aeris. Everyone likes her."  
  
"No you dense old man," she scowled at him, then sipped her drink before mumbling, "I mean *likes* her.."  
  
The emphasis on the word made Cid stop short, and slowly the pilot blinked. One hand came up to scrub in his short crew cut hair, as his blue eyes slid to Yuffie who avoided his curious glance. "He likes her...?"  
  
"Yeah. I think it's upsetting him because Aeris spends a lot of time thinking about the past.. "  
  
"That's only natural."  
  
"Not as much as this, she's almost absorbed in it, she can't seem to stop herself from drowning in memories." The ninja gave vent to a small grunt of frustration, and put the cup down in time so she could wave her hands about expressively, "I mean, just the other day she stared off into space and mumbled something about her church!"  
  
"That's a bit wierd.. does she think about...you know, him?"  
  
"I think so, hell, they literally promised each other to the other. Maybe she's clinging to some random hope but we all saw it.. we saw him.." Yuffie swallowed. She didn't have to finish the sentence.  
  
The pilot looked down at his coffee, unmasked and filling the room with delicious odours. He tried not to think about it, whatever happened happened and there was nothing he could do to change it. But possibly Aeris felt worse for the double blow of being returned to life and losing both planet and friends within one fell swoop. Then a strange thought occured to him.  
  
"Have you heard the bells ringing recently?"  
  
"Bells? In the second district, over the old Gizmo shop?" Yuffie looked up and frowned, "Not since we got here. Why?"  
  
"I had a dream last night, kept hearing bells." Cid shrugged and lifted the coffee taking a long swallow of it. It felt nice even as it trickled down and burnt him raw in the throat.  
  
"Cid," Yuffie said slowly, trying to ease the tension, "You are one crazy old man."  
  
"Maybe, " he grinned back, trying not to think about Aeris, and Leon.. about shadows and home. "But you're the most fucked up girl I know."  
  
At this she laughed and lifted her paper cup in a kind of lame salute.. then drank, to drown her sorrows and the awkward silence.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Bitterly, she sat out on her balcony. Not on the chairs at the table, or even on the table. She sat on the very edge of the balcony with her legs dangling over the wall and her smooth face tilted up to the stars.   
  
Where was she?  
  
How had she gotten here?  
  
Where was she going?  
  
No answers, only questions.  
  
Her feet struck the wall with each impatient blow of her foot, and the dammed tears prickled the back of her eyelids again. Cursing her own feelings and helpless against the tides of emotion that she was always so vulnerable to, she looked down.  
  
The keys in the Princesses were coming to light and how she understood now that soon everything would vanish. How to unlock those keys, how to show them the way.. if only she could puzzle it out!  
  
Feeling the beginning of a headache round her temples and the dull throb of her lower back at the position she was sat in, Aeris put a hand on the wall and twisted to move back onto solid ground. Then stopped.  
  
On the balcony across from hers was stood Leon, in his leathers and denim, eyes crinkled and soft as he watched her. Hesistantly, she stopped moving and sat there, poised and quivering.  
  
"You busy?" he said softly, his low voice reaching her ears easily and she shook her head in the negative. Squall slowly lifted a hand and beckoned to her.  
  
Not wanting to leave him waiting, she slid off the balcony and onto the safety of the inner floor.. then moved across to the edge of her balcony that was only feet from his and rested her hands there. The strands of her blue belt whispered in the breezes of night, and her bracelets all jangled together impatiently, but she only tilted her head to see what he was bent over and doing.  
  
"Le...Squall?!" she questioned softly.  
  
"Hold on..." slowly he stood up, with slight strain on his face and a strange oblong box in his hands, filled with aromatic dark stuff. He balanced it between their balconies, setting it down so it spanned the distances, and then dusted his hands of with a very satisfied smile.  
  
"There."  
  
Aeris tilted her head, "what...?" her hand crooked a finger which she slowly dug into the dark stuff. It was soil, and then with strange abandon, she literally shoved her hand into the soil, feeling the pleasant touch of it on her skin.  
  
"It's a present," he said softly.  
  
"Present? But why..?"  
  
She looked up and locked her green eyes with his over the box, and the easy smile he had been practising, it felt like, just for her graced them. She almost leant over, pulling hands from the soil.. but didn't. She badly wanted to press her lips to his again, but just held onto sanity with the small voice chiming in about Cloud..  
  
~I want you so badly.. but promises.. ~  
  
~Remember Cloud!~  
  
Something must've shown on her face, because his leather hand suddenly moved over and took her soiled one, his thumb stroking over the skin on the back of the hand. She shivered and gripped the wall tighter.  
  
"It's a gift for you, you said you missed being able to grow things. Now you can.. have a piece of the world with you."  
  
She looked at the box, and blushed, tears coming to her eyes. "That's thoughtful of you... very thoughtful."  
  
"Anything to make you happy, Aeris."  
  
~Anything?~  
  
Aeris looked back up at him, and saw no trace of bitterness in his eyes, only understanding. Softly, she laughed and as she 'twined her fingers helplessly with his she succumbed to her emotions. As night drowned down, she whispered to him of keys, of plants and many things besides as the small voice in her ear said softly..  
  
~ I see the key in you.. Can you see the hole in me? ~ 


	8. 7: The Key in Me

Destroyed  
  
Chapter Seven: The Key in Me  
  
"I would just like to take this moment to thank everyone who has reviewed so far, I came back from watching Comic Relief to a very full inbox of review postings! so a quick dealing of this, to show my appreciation for you taking your time to be bolster my confidence:  
  
Ryuki: sweetie, you are my consistent reviewer, and I love reading your opinions! Thank you very very much!  
  
to "..........": Wow? Heehee, if I'm knocking you from your feet then I'm doing a good job!  
  
Rookie: I'm glad you like what I'm doing, and of course, another chapter to keep you all busy and I finally start getting given end of degree essays!   
  
///////: thanks sweetie ^_^  
  
???: I'm not sure yet myself! I know I do like the Leon/Aerith pairing a lot, in my mind he's a lot more real to her, than what Cloud will ever be, but maybe a few twists are yet to come...  
  
@_@ : I intend to... 'cause otherwise Ryuki might eat me alive!  
  
Winged Angel: *blush* thankies! Also, please check out the fanfics of Ryukidata, they are masterpieces in their own right!  
  
_ : it'll still be here whenever you need to get about to it hun, don't fret!  
  
(O.O) : *just arches a brow*   
  
Kupoooooo: heh, may the cheese reign long over us, I say...  
  
and of course, to ---------- : update soon ... sure why not, here, have another chapter ^_~"  
  
~  
~  
~I will take you as you are  
Please accept me as I am  
There'll be something in the wind  
To show us the light and tell us we're wrong~  
  
~ Above You, Below Me, Badly Drawn Boy~  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Her fingers deftly wove the strands of grass, much like he had done so long ago.   
  
It was woven into a faintly star shaped design, then hung with love and extreme care above the small plot of earth she had claimed, or rather been given, as her own. In the fragrant soil she had carefully planted bulbs of hyacinth and tulips, both bought with a small splurge of the little munny they owned as a group, but in her mind it was worth it.  
  
Smiling in satisfaction, she sniffed and then took time to rather carelessly wipe her soiled hands down her pink dress. They left long smears of brown down her slim sides, but she paid it no attention.   
  
It was time to test her talents again.  
  
Shutting her eyes as she lifted dirtied hands, and spread her fingers out. The wind ruffled past her, a whisper of her past power, of her dearest connections to the world, and possibly all worlds. It shifted, subtly to begin with. But she kept her eyes shut, kept them tight shut against the world and moved her lips in silent prayer.  
  
It was softly struck at first.  
  
The slow uncurling of warmth from inside her and inside the seed, it sprang into being and scuttled round the edges of her senses like an old friend or memory she was trying to remember but couldn't get a complete handle on.   
  
Then came the gasp of life, the soft sigh of it winding down into the hollows of the soil.  
  
About her shoulders the wind intensified, and she shivered in it's thrall. It bit her skin with cold teeth and blew on the back of her neck where her hairs strove to rise vainly. However, only elation filled her thoughts with deep penetrating need.  
  
She was doing it.  
  
She was actually tapping into the small reservoir of power inside herself, into the stream of power that flowed about her from every living creature to the next. The lifestream. Her lifestream. She was actually using a power long thought dead by herself, and suddenly she laughed.  
  
Something velvety brushed the underside of her outspread hands, and blinking she moved her hands away to look down at the small box and the soil.   
  
From the dirt a beautiful collection of tulips and hyacinths poked, of shades and colours she had forgotten about. How long had it been since her church and the flowers? Since the Promised Land and her death dream of a world filled with life?  
  
"My flowers," she whispered in tones of contentment.  
  
Her lips quirked, remembering the past as she kept stroking the petals of the flowers..  
  
~*~  
  
....his hand brushed the dust from a badly broken bench, his large frame finding a seat somehow as his daughter played and romped among the still springing signs of life in this ruin. She seemed so full of abandon, like a care could not touch her and stain her cheeks with tears as it had done him and many others through out life.  
  
Beside him, the cat creature drew to a slow halt, settling down on haunches and lifting the red muzzle so he was staring up the at hole in the ceiling. It was broken and timbered, Barrett noted as he too looked up and saw hints of the blue sky beyond it. Sky seen from the slums in Midgar had seemed for the longest time an impossible and fond dream. But now the reality was here and stealing like soft hands over their own lives.  
  
Marlene laughed, drawing down Barrett's attention from the skylight, to where his daughter was.  
  
She deserved to see the world being given it's second chance.  
  
"Fate. the will of the Planet, works in mysterious ways." Red said in his low purring voice.  
  
Everything worked in strange ways. To not know if you would wake one day or not, to never know if dreams and hopes would be snatched irrevocably from your grasp and given to the sky.. to not see another flower unfurl. Cruel and strange.  
  
"This place is sacred," Barrett rumbled slowly as Marlene tried tickling a snowdrop to make it open early.  
  
"Aeris lingers yet," the cat agreed, tilting his head towards the shadowed doorway.  
  
And she had smiled, to herself, watching them...  
  
~*~  
  
"It had been a good choice," she reminded herself, despite the old pain searing her bones at the thought of it, and looked down at the flowers.  
  
Traverse Town was certainly where she had never imagined herself ending up, for it was such a diverse place of cultures and peoples, but she was here now and she had been given a new chance and a new task. What her chance was, she didn't have a clue at all. But her task was getting clearer with each remembered step.  
  
She was on a journey.  
  
Where it would lead her, she didn't know... where she had been is all she could see, through life and death and swords to get to this point in her life.  
  
"Planet" she whispered, bowing her head, "I'll do all that I can."  
  
~ I'm finally understanding...the key.. ~  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"Riku!" he shouted helplessly as the ground under him shook. "Kairi?!"  
  
His world had just...vanished. Now he was left on the pedestal of it, as darkness seethed under and over it, the presence of the creature known only as darkside trying to get his attention but he stayed by the edge, trying to see his friends and his home.  
  
Where had they all gone?  
  
What was this darkness?  
  
What was with this strange weapon?  
  
"Come," rumbled some thing behind him, and Sora tilted his head to look past his unruly brown hair, then yelled as the sight of the tentacled Heartless took precedence over everything else.  
  
Darkness, slowly closed in.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
The squeal of fury behind him made him jump, and moving aside he tried glancing back at the small, squat figure that continued to bang about in the cockpit, his high pitched voice trying to convey his emotions but failing as all it did was squeak and splutter words almost incoherently.  
  
"Er, gee Donald," he drawled, pulling on the funny over jacket, more like a waistcoat which he left unbuttoned. It fit oddly over his frame but he didn't really mind, and then he turned to face the furious duck. "Doncha thing you should calm down a bit, uh-huh?"  
  
"Calm DOWN!" the duck croaked, eyes black but flashing with fury. Short and dressed in a blue coat and shirt, the court mage of King Mickey's, his vizier.. was prone to the worst kind of temper. Hot, quick and full of snappish comments easily said in the heat of the fury, but forgotten later just as smoothly. "How can I calm down, Goofy? He just upped and left.. who is Leon?"  
  
"Gee, well.." Goofy tilted his head and then picked up his shield. It felt light, the only weapon he had been able to find. Never one for swords, beating them unconcious with a shield was the measure of him, normally. "I don't know but he must be a great man for the king to put so much faith in him, yup."  
  
"I can't believe you're blindly going along with it!"  
  
"What else can we do," he replied to the scathing look, laid back as ever. Sometimes, he worried that Donald would one day have some sort of anuerism from all this worrying and stressing and shouting. One day.  
  
But now appeared not to be one of those times as the Vizier stalked about like a mini thunderstorm, trying to get his own grip on the situation.  
  
It did appear odd to Goofy, that such a thing would happen and the King would up and leave without telling any of them. However, it was also true about the worlds and for each night Goofy spent in the gardens outside the castle, he would count the stars above them.. and each night was dismayed a little more to be one down of the previous count.  
  
Something terrible was happening.  
  
"Maybe this Leon knows why the stars are going out," he remarked off hand, as soon as the thought popped into his head.  
  
Donald sat down in a chair, not looking so happy. "I guess all we can do is ask. Thats if we can even find the man, Traverse town is said to be huge."  
  
"And full of refugees."  
  
"That too," he squawked, and folded his arms.   
  
Goofy watched his companion a moment more, then turned and gazed out of the cockpit window. Sure enough, the world was looming there. No matter what Donald thought about world boundaries and not meddling, sometimes you had to meddle a bit to get the right results, and to get everything back to normal.  
  
He chuckled to himself, and Donald threw him an exasperated look, but rather than explain it, he just chuckled more as outside another star began to fade..  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
~ I've been thinking lately.  
  
Having these, wierd thoughts.  
  
Like... is any of this real, or not?  
  
I'm floating down, and flying up. The world above and sky below me.  
  
Who is the real me, who owns the real thoughts?  
  
Will I ever go home again or will the shadows try to swallow me too, and in them I shall be lost to darkness and despair, to depression and loneliness.  
  
I fear being alone.  
  
I fear losing friends.  
  
I fear losing.. love.  
  
Stars of green revolve sometimes about a face I have seen only in my dreams, as she smiles and waits patiently for me to arrive so I can unlock her secret. Her inner fears and demons, her angel wings and soft radiance. There is a key in you, like there is a key in me.  
  
The only difference is, I can see mine and wield it.  
  
You have locked yours away from the world in shame and worry.  
  
Don't worry anymore. Look, the stars call your name and whisper to me of a power I had thought denied to me and you, a power that has long been cooped up inside us both, waiting to get out. Waiting to prowl around and show the world our radiance.  
  
There is a key in you, and at your call, I come.  
  
White Lady, I come..~  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
She blinked, roused from her strange daydream and thoughts to look at the kindly, weather beaten face of Cid as he held his hand of cards, the backs to her and hiding suits from view. Blinking owlishly, she turned so she could see Leon stood by the door, his eyes constantly on her with smoky cadence, eyes that made her blood warm inside her. Yuffie was drawing a card from the deck, almost in slow motion, and as she batted her eyelids again, everything resumed normal speed.  
  
"Oh," she whispered under her breath, ignoring the raised eyebrow from Leon who was obviously the only one who had heard her muttering. Eyes falling down, she stared at the cards held in her hands and tilted them like a fan of paper.  
  
Three kings, two queens.  
  
She had a full house.  
  
King of clubs, misfortune. King of Diamonds, dreams. King of Spades, power. Queen of Clubs... distress. Queen of hearts... Secrets and love. Strange arcane meanings flitting through her head, she put the cards down before her.  
  
Cid cursed and threw in his hand, "Dammit!"  
  
Yuffie giggled and put her hand down, showing a pair of aces but not much else. "I was hoping for an Ace flush, but had to settle for a pair, thank heavens I didn't put down anything bigger into the kitty."  
  
"Mmm," she said, distracted and drew in the small munny pieces they played with, so different from Gil. She missed handling the myrthil half gil and the notes.  
  
"What's wrong," asked Yuffie, tilting her head so black hair turned itself over her elfin features, those dark violet eyes suddenly lit with worry. Aeris stared right back at her, unable to find a voice with which to tell her the sudden feelings inside her.  
  
~ What do I say? I've become so.. distant lately. I know there's been a lot to cope with, but that voice that just reached out to me. Was it the planet? Was it this planet helping me to hear someone else? ~  
  
"I was just thinking," she said slowly. Cid butted in almost immediately;  
  
"Try not to do that myself, gives me a headache."  
  
As they laughed a little at his joke, though Cid tried wearing an expression that lent itself to seriousness, her attention was once again drawn down to the strange pyramid of munny, to the cards laid out so neatly. Then she lifted her vision and looked across the room.  
  
Everything stood out in such clarity.  
  
If she had concentrated, Aeris was convinced she could pick out the highlights of faint silver in Leon's hair, she could have traced every single knot and curve built into the wood grain of the furniture, she could have pointed to the imperfections in the cards from their manufacturing and laminating process. Her eyes slid from Leon to the door, then to the plants in the vase she had picked earlier from her small box.  
  
Time was running slow, or was she running fast?  
  
A breath of warm air hit the back of her neck and shivering even with the warmth of the touch, she lifted her hand and clapped it to the back of her neck. Jumping at herself, and drawing the attention of the others, she stood slowly, munny trickling from her lap in slow motion as it seemed to her. They clanged on the floor with a dull sound.  
  
Aeris tried looking over her shoulder, cinnamon brown hair flowing slowly behind her, but there was no one there. Just the couch looking battered, and the slightly floral wall paper.. then she looked back at the flowers in the vase.  
  
~ a key in me soon to be unleashed, a path soon to be walked. Cards and munny, who deals this deck to us as players, and if I am playing then what game have I been sat down to? ~  
  
She slowly took steps away from the table, ignoring the others in the room.  
  
Their looks behind her back were worried. Trance like, she moved across to the window and opened it firmly, pushing aside the curtains so they didn't blow in her face with the night breeze, and slowly she leant out, dangling herself over the rift. If she fell, she didn't mind.  
  
It wasn't her time, not yet, and something would inevitably save her.  
  
But like the mako bubbles she had once watched in a dark tank of liquid, her eyes were automatically pulled up to the night sky. There, in the pit of shadow, small points of light twinkled merrily and she lowered her brows for a moment, trying to concentrate.. then she saw what time had slowed for, saw what had suddenly tugged hard on her magic.  
  
She knew Merlin too, would be watching the sky and seeing this omen.  
  
"Aeris?" someone called through the fog of her mind, but her fingers stayed locked on the sill and her eyes watching the flickering fight of a single star as it strove against the darkness.  
  
~ Fight! ~ she willed it.  
  
But slowly, slowly it was overcome and then swallowed.. and she gasped.  
  
"Aeris?!"  
  
Strong hands pulled her away from the window, and she was vaguely aware of Leon holding her by the shoulders as Yuffie shut the window. Cid was cleaning up the overturned table, and shaking, the ancient lifted her eyes to meet Leon's.  
  
"The Keyblade is moving."  
  
"Moving? Where?" squeaked Yuffie, putting one gloved hand in her hair and ruffling it in some confusion.  
  
"Here," she whispered, feeling faint. But Leon was there, holding her up.  
  
~ Will you always be there, to lift me up even when shadows fall? ~  
  
"When?" he asked, just as quietly and letting his eyes watch her, devour her with their endless smoky brightness. She loved feeling his hands on her shoulders, his strength all that was keeping her standing as she murmured back in low tones.  
  
"Now, we must be ready."  
  
Leon nodded, and slowly let his hands trail from her, leaving goosebumps on her bare flesh where he had touched. Shivering, as he gave out a few orders, her eyes were drawn back to the shadowy portal that was the closed window, and the voice that had echoed inside her. Promising.  
  
~ Is this, who I am? Show me.. ~ 


	9. 8: Arrivals

Destroyed  
~  
  
Chapter Eight: Arrivals  
~  
~  
~ It doesn't mean much,  
It doesn't mean anything at all.   
The life I've left behind me   
Is a cold room.  
I've crossed the last line   
From where I can't return,   
Where every step I took in faith,   
Betrayed me... ~  
Sweet Surrender, Sarah Maclachlan   
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
He was aware, ever so slowly, of a hard surface behind his head. Underneath him, as cold as ice and betraying pins and needles into his unwilling skin.   
  
Again, warm water was dashed over his face.  
  
Hot breath, fouler than any garbage produced hit his face, and screwing up his nose in distaste, he tilted his head back so it knocked off the hard suface, and brought up his hand to fend off whatever was attacking him.  
  
Slowly, he opened one eye, then the other so his sapphire eyes blinked down at the dog which had roused him from his stupor.  
  
It wasn't overly large, but slim and with large appealing black eyes that blinked at him, intelligence lurking inside them. Then with a half yap, he turned and ran off before Sora could raise a hand.  
  
"Where am I.." he wondered aloud, looking up and finding himself sat spread eagled in an alley way, his head resting against a wall much to his confusion. More than confusion, for the last he had recalled, he had been standing on the brink of a half eaten world, waving his blade at shadows and trying to keep his footing.   
  
What had happened, and why was he suddenly here of all places?   
  
Where was his world and if it had vanished then why had it gone?  
  
Where were Riku and Kairi?  
  
Panic washing cold over him, he bit his lip and stood up slowly so as to not get a head rush. It felt to him like he hadn't eaten in days, his stomach growling hungrily at him. Using the strange key like weapon as leverage, he stood and pushed brown hair from his eyes.  
  
The alley was thin, and blocked off at one end. With a shrug, he started towards the end that was open and half dragged the key after him, wincing at the shrill tap tap on certain flagstones as he went. Eventually the alley opened up to a larger area, full of shops.  
  
One young man who was passing stopped and tilted a delicate eyebrow at him, then asked rather pointedly, "Are you new here?"  
  
"I guess," Sora said softly, in some confusion as he viewed the strange town. It was like one of the small models Kairi had built in her first months on the Island, showing them what some of the towns she had visited had been like, the places she had seen before settling in on the Destiny Islands.  
  
"Well, welcome to Traverse Town. So, your world got swallowed eh?"  
  
"Swallowed?"  
  
"Yeah, you know, by the shadows. Don't worry, we got some specialists on our side, Traverse won't fall lad!" The young man smiled with complete confidence and hefted the couple of books he had, "Mind you, just taking these over to the Researcher now."  
  
"Researcher?"  
  
"Aren't ya listening?"  
  
Almost saying 'huh' in an ever intelligent response, Sora turned his slightly confused eyes back onto the young man who was studying him with a slight look of apprehension. "How do people get here?"  
  
"Well, most escape on Gummi ships.."  
  
"Most?"  
  
"Sometimes people don't make it from their worlds. Sometimes they can just escape the shadows on their own," he shrugged then smiled, "Don't worry about it. Hey, if you manage to find the refugee clinic they should get you something to eat. I'll be late if I don't hurry, see you later maybe?"  
  
Without waiting for an answer, the gawky young man stumbled off carrying the books. Sora watched him for a moment until his stomach growled at him, demanding his attention and with a sigh he patted his gloved hand on it.  
  
"I know," he said, regardless of the fact he was talking to himself. The shop door was slightly open next to him, and a man in the doorway looked down at him with an arched brow as he spoke to his stomach. He grinned lightly, and hoped the man didn't think he had gone completely mad. But, considering recent events he wasn't so sure.  
  
"Your world get taken too, eh?"  
  
He looked to be in his late thirties, with wide blue trousers, a clean cotton shirt that was getting slightly bobbled with wear and his waist wrapped about with a kind of wide tool belt. His face looked like it hadn't seen a razor in a few days, the eyes shadowed and tired but sparkling with humour nevertheless. His hair was neatly swept back from his face, behind a pair of piloting goggles that were half rimmed with soot, and in his mouth a stalk of grass sat lazily.  
  
"I guess," Sora replied slowly.  
  
"Well.. my names Cid."  
  
"Sora," he answered, gawkily. He wasn't sure how he felt about the sudden openess of all these people, he just felt more and more confused than before. "I'm looking for my friends, Riku and Kairi. Have you seen them?"  
  
"Riku and Kairi, eh? What do they look like?"  
  
Sora took a moment to explain their appearance to the man, as he listened just as intently back. Boy, fifteen years old, taller than Sora with white hair and green eyes. Girl, fourteen years old, a little smaller than Sora with short cut reddish hair and bright blue eyes, always laughing. He felt better just talking of them, perhaps it showed in his face because after ten minutes the pilot was grinning at him past the grass stalk.  
  
"Well," Cid said, tilting his head, "Can't say I've seen them about, sorry."  
  
"Oh.." Sora sighed and looked down at the pavement, a frown crawling over his usually unmarred brow. Of course, wishing they would still be here after so long as just madness.. but he couldn't help wishing and hoping. He liked to believe so long as he kept wishing, dreaming and believing in where his feet took him, then he stood a chance of getting them back.  
  
"Hey, well, if you don't find 'em.. I'll take care of you." Sora looked up and saw the gruff face split with a kindly smile, those blue eyes twinkling and for the first time in a long while he felt like crying, felt his heart go out to the man who stood before him.  
  
Of course, his world has been swallowed too. But from the look of things, the consumption happened a while ago, not so recent as Sora's and whilst the pain was fresh for him, it was deep and old for Cid.  
  
"Thanks," he managed, and smiled back.  
  
"You won't find them if you don't go looking, Sora. If you have any questions or just want to talk, I'm right here." The pilot patted the doorframe of the building, and slowly he set his bright sapphire eyes on the sign reading "Accessories."   
  
"Alright.. I'll be seeing you," he offered finally and lifting his hand in farewell, turned and held the key like blade to his chest, and moved off into the shadows of the town, his face lurking between thoughtfulness and regret.  
  
Everyone suffered, everyone felt pain.  
  
Why should he be more special than them?  
  
After all, he still had hope. And he could never give that up.  
  
Eventually the path wound it's way round the back of the accessory shop, past closed doors and a fat man who grinned brightly at him, chewing on a carrot stick as he conversed with a young lad who was trying to fix some kind of toy plane. Their eyes met his, and didn't slide away. Feeling somehow, if in a part, welcome, Sora made his way over to the heavy, tall gates. He begin to push, until a voice stopped him..  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"Gawsh, are we even goin' the right way?"  
  
Donald squawked his fury and pointed down on street, then grinned.. kind of. The sort of grin that indicated he didn't really have a clue either.   
  
It figured, as far as Goofy was concerned. From first look, Traverse Town had appeared somewhat more extensive than what they had planned for. With later insepction as they wandered about haplessly, they came to realise that it was much much bigger and full of diverse cultures. They walked down the indicated street, and met with a fountain then a door.  
  
"More doors?" laughed Donald, "This place is full of doors!"  
  
Smiling, the soldier ambled forward and gave it a push, opening it into the small alleyway that led round back. It looked dark down there, and so far he had seen no shadows to warrant him getting his shield out. Donald showed little caution however, hot headedly pushing his way forwards and past Goofy into the semi-darkness.  
  
"Anyway," continued the duck, with his usual ignorance of anything remotely threatening, and Goofy tried not to roll his eyes. The tirade was coming back. Following his vizier companion, he said "uh-huh" at appropriate places.  
  
It was the usual, "why us? what did we ever do.." rant, and he was getting rather used to his friend just randomly blathering on now and then. As they walked through the tiny ginney, it moved into an open backstreet where water ran through from some underground source. It didn't seem contaminated though, clear as crystal and shining bright.  
  
Donald misstepped as Goofy accidentally forgot to stop in time, and was pushed into the water, soaking his clothes.  
  
"You great dolt!"  
  
"Whoops," he laughed, looking down at the duck who stood armpit deep in the water, turning that attractive shade of red he always did.  
  
"Give me a hand out of here!"  
  
"Alright."  
  
It took a bit of manouevering, but eventually they got Donald back on the street. As he dripped water, back to the doors they had passed that belonged to a tall building, the vizier gave his strict opinion on the soldier walking by the water next time and seeing how he liked it.  
  
Goofy tried poitning out that he hadn't meant to, but the duck was having none of it.  
  
It was as they were arguing that something tapped Donald on the shoulder. It caused him to erupt into a panicked yelp, and turn about. Calmer, Goofy turned to look as well.  
  
It was a young woman, perhaps twenty two, twenty three years of age in a slim line pink dress, strappy at the shoulders. About her slender waist was hung a blue belt, and the hand she had tapped Donald on the shoulder with was curled about with many metal bracelets. She wasn't tall, but she gave the impression of being willowy, her hair caught up in a lazy braid of sugar brown, her wide eyes a brilliant green. All of this, underlined by a strange sense of tranquility.  
  
"Excuse me, but did the King send you?"  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
"They'll come at you out of nowhere."  
  
Sora blinked, looking at the man who stood like a shadow himself, silently watching him. He was tall, with clothes of a dark denim and leather, blues. In one hand he tapped a strange kind of blade lightly against his leg, smoky blue eyes regarding him calmly and without visible emotion in them, from under a thick fringe of dark brown hair.  
  
He looked dangerous.  
  
"Who are you?" he asked, a frown marring his brow. Always the best question to ask in a situation like this.  
  
The man lifted a hand, and pointed at the blade Sora held in his hand loosely. In the same low, soft voice he continued, "And they'll keep on coming at you, as long as you continue to wield the Keyblade. But why? Why would it choose a kid like you?" The fingers of his left hand came up to his temple, massaging there as if somehow that would take away the angst of trying to figure this out.  
  
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"  
  
He had woken here, in a strange place, full of strange people only to be told that his world was gone, his friends weren't here and now, to top it all of the blade he was running about with had chosen him? Why him? He had nothing to offer, nothing to give and all he really wanted right now was to see Riku and Kairi.  
  
The warrior shook his head, then held out his hand, commandingly retorting with, "Never mind, now let me see that Keyblade."  
  
Alarmed, all he could do was lift it as to strike the man, "What?! There's no way you're getting this!"  
  
~ It's all I have left to connect me to home ~  
  
A small hint of a smile touched those emotionless lips, and the eyes lit up briefly, "Fine, have it your way."  
  
It came faster than he could have expected, and he only just brought up the blade to deflect the blow.   
  
Immediately Sora could see the disadvantage of fighting in such close quarters, after all, Riku had been a very good tutor when they had sparred together back on the island. Taking time, he waited for the next blow, and as the warrior hewed his weapon down for a lethal blow, Sora slid to the side and began to run past him as fast as his legs could carry him. He ran breathlessly back towards the accessory shop, skidding round the corner as he could hear the man walking easily behind him, betraying no need for speed.  
  
He hit the bannisters looking over the postbox, then gasping, turned and made for the stairs down.  
  
Then blinked, as the man appeared as if from nowhere before his eyes, landing like a cat after the jump. As he stood up, Sora felt his mouth go dry. This was going to be no ordinary fight.  
  
As the strange blade seemed to move of it's own volition, Sora moved too, swinging the keyblade round and as they struck the others blade, the resonance almost knocked the man from his feet.  
  
Staring at the keyblade a moment, listening to it hum happily.. his blade was magical?  
  
The man muttered something, but Sora moved, battering him over the head with blade until he swung back.  
  
His reflexes weren't enough this time and a slice of red appeared across his upper arm. Softly grumbling, he turned and ran whilst trying to stick a hand over the cut. Then was thrown flat on his face as something hot slammed into his back.  
  
Gasping, he realised slowly he felt afire.. and fumbled for a potion, swallowing the contents. The burning sensation faded, as did the pain of the cut. It was enough and he rolled to the side just as the man's blade hammered itself into the flagstones where he had lain prone not seconds before.  
  
The blade appeared stuck.  
  
Gratefully, Sora moved and began to batter the warrior now he was bladeless.. until eventually he fell onto one knee.  
  
Gasping for air at so much exertion, swaying with the pain of bruising and the burning sensation still there on his back, Sora looked at the man who had tried to beat him within an inch of his life. Swallowing thickly he lifted the Keyblade as the warrior watched with curiosity in the smoky blue eyes.  
  
"Now... you're...gonna.. you're gonna.."  
  
The world whirled black about him, as he felt himself hit the floor with an exhausted thud. Voices permeated that darkness, one the man's..and one another voice.  
  
"Aw, you're slipping Leon."  
  
"I went easy on him. Looks like things are worse than we thought. A lot worse."  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
There was a voice in the madness.  
  
He watched her fade like a star, fade from his memory but exist there all at once.  
  
His driving force.  
  
"Come on lazy bum, wake up.."  
  
Kairi...Kairi...  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
He was slowly coming round, and as he studied the keyblade, leant against a strut of the door in Yuffie's room, he also half listened to them talk. He hadn't taken it as easy on the kid as he should have, but he had felt angry for a wild moment.  
  
Why had a kid been given the keyblade? Why not him?  
  
He was strong, he was true and he had more than one reason to fight now that Aeris was in his life. He would cling to that, long after the shadows had fallen.  
  
"Those creatures that attacked you are after the Keyblade, but it's your heart they really want, because you wield the Keyblade," Yuffie said softly. Everyone had paid attention to Aeris' nightly lectures on the Heartless. Everyone understood the nature of these monsters.. everyone should be aware of danger.  
  
The boy slurred, still half asleep, "I'm so glad you're okay Kairi."  
  
Stifling a grin as he watched the young girl plant her hands on her hips and turn a pretty shade of red, "Kairi?! Who are you talking about? I'm the great Ninja, Yuffie!"  
  
Ah yes, that same old pride, the old arrogance that comes with the flush of youth. It was wearing thin on the chirpy girl now, and he could see the struggle she had to do to even speak her name, say her title. He felt the same somedays.  
  
Yuffie turned to look at him accusingly, and half crooked a finger, "I think you overdid it Squall!"  
  
"That's Leon."  
  
Of course, her constantly forgetting his alias was ever so amusing to him. It wasn't always good to say his name, someone could know it.. and until they had this mess sorted out he only wanted people he could love and trust to remind him of a dead world. He only wished for Aeris to say it, filled with love and happiness. He shut his eyes briefly, thinking of her and the way she had sweetly said his name at first.  
  
Yuffie turned back to the kid on the bed, and slowly Leon opened his eyes to study the young boy.. no, young man. He wasn't tall, he never would be too tall when fully grown. A mop of light brown hair, bright blue eyes and clothes made for island living. Shoes that looked a bit too big for him, chains hung from his waist and gloves with strange symbols on the backs of them. But something in the way he sat alerted Leon to the fact that perhaps, this kid was more than he seemed.  
  
"The Keyblade," she said, gesturing to it, "we had to get it away from you to shake off those creatures. It turns out that's how they were tracking you."  
  
Leon leant down a bit, and picked up the Keyblade, feeling the magic. "It was the only way to conceal your heart from them. But it won't work for long. It's hard to believe that you, of all people, are the chosen one."  
  
He moved his hand to the side, and slowly the blade hummed and vanished, ony to reappear in Sora's hands much to his surprise. As the boy looked over the blade, Leon sighed inwardly. Some small part of him had hoped it would choose him when picked up.  
  
Maybe he was too flawed.  
  
Sighing, he leant back up by the doorway, "Well, beggars can't be choosers."  
  
~ And we surely are the poorest of the poor, stumbling about in the dark. ~  
  
The boy looked up and said in a controlled voice, trying to hide fear, worry, anger and confusion in those tones, "Why don't you start making sense? What's going on here?!"  
  
~*~  
  
She sat comfortably down at the end of her bed, in her neatly tidied room and watched the two who had followed their king as they in turn watched her with their black eyes. One tall, one short, one calm and one fiery. For a moment, she was reminded of herself and Tifa, and briefly she smiled.  
  
They seemed to relax as she smiled, so she carried on.  
  
"Okay," she began, in her soft voice, "you know there are many other worlds out there, besides your castle and this town... right?"  
  
The duck nodded, still slightly wet from the alleyway, "Yeah.."  
  
Goofy scratched at his head then half laughed in his strange accent, "But, they're supposed to be a secret.."  
  
~ Of course, he might never had told them what he knows, or the extent of what he knows. Now I'm left here to show them? Planet, is this my path? Showing and guiding? ~  
  
As something inside her partly answered her question, she carried on with a small movement of her hands. "They've been secret because they've never been connected. Until now.." the two looked at her as she lowered her eyes and said in sorrowed tones she couldn't help. "When the Heartless came, everything changed.."  
  
~*~  
  
The boy blinked, "Heartless?"  
  
Yuffie, who had taken up a spot on the bed next to Sora, nudged him, "The ones who attacked you, remember?"  
  
Leon gestured with a hand, moving restlessly from the wall in a small circle. He hated this, hated questions and waiting but if you didn't ask then you never got anywhere. And this kid needed all the help he could get. "Those without Hearts. The darkness within people's hearts is what attracts them. And there is darkness within every heart."  
  
~Even mine. ~  
  
His eyes slid to study Sora.  
  
~ Even his. ~  
  
~Even Aeris' ?~  
  
Yuffie spoke up suddenly into the silence, "Hey, have you ever heard of someone named Ansem?"  
  
~*~  
  
The soldier scratched his head and looked puzzled, "Ah-nsem?"  
  
This was a subject she knew a lot about, and trying not to show her excitement she tilted her head, explaining as fast as the thoughts came to her, "He was studying the Heartless. He recorded all of his findings in a very detailed report."  
  
This got the tall doglike soldier's attention and he grinned, "well Gawsh, can we see it?"  
  
Wincing, Aeris looked apologetic as she murmurd, "It's pages are scattered everywhere."  
  
"Scattered?" asked the tiny wizard.  
  
~ I knew it, even with the time given we didn't have the chance to get the report. If only we had.. ~  
  
"Too many worlds."  
  
This did however strike off an idea in Goofy's head and he lifted a finger, "oh, well maybe the King went to find 'em?"  
  
Inwardly breathing her relief at finding some way to help them, she nodded brightly, her sugar brown hair bobbing, "Yes, those were my thoughts exactly."  
  
The soldier stood up straight, and started to move for the door into the hallway, "well then we gotta find him quick!"  
  
"Wait wait wait!" bawled Donald, grabbing Goofy by his coat, "We still gotta get that 'key'!"  
  
~Key...~  
  
She stared between them for a moment as they stared at each other. A key, a secret dream and a secret voice. The darkness and the hope.. would she exist past those dark fingers inside her? Her key, the Keyblade, their keys..  
  
"That's right," she said finally, gathering their attention to her, "The Keyblade."  
  
~*~  
  
Sora tilted his head as Leon watched him. "So..this is the key."  
  
On the bed, Yuffie bounced slightly as she nodded exuberantly, "Exactly." But her violet eyes when they found his, seemed to say, "finally."  
  
Taking up his part of the story in his calm voice, Leon moved back to he was touching the doorframe. "The Heartless have great fear of the keyblade. That's why they'll keep coming after you, no matter what."  
  
"I didn't ask for this!"  
  
~ I did.. sometimes you don't get what you ask for, but you have to learn to accept your lot in life. ~  
  
Yuffie laughed and ruffled Sora's hair, "The Keyblade *chooses* it's master, and it chose you!"  
  
"So," Leon waved his hand, moving so he stood at the other side of the chunky doorframe, facing the small safe. "Tough luck."  
  
"How..How did all this happen? I remember being in my room.." there was a silence, Leon staring hard at the metal of the safe and trying to collect his thoughts as the boy suddenly burst out into shocked revelations. "Wait a minute, what happened to my home? My island? Riku! Kairi..."  
  
He shrugged, how could he give him answers to tame those wonderings? Only Aeris could and she was occupied with other guests right now. Perhaps later she could help.. "You know what, I don't really know."  
  
There was a shuffling, and something came into his vision. Unwillingly, he looked up into the bright blue eyes and sighed. So young, and so ready for the tempering. He hated this. Too young..  
  
"Sooner or later the Heartless will find you, you'd best prepare yourself."  
  
Those bright blue eyes blinked slowly, and the voice was calm enough. But he could see the hands shaking, could see the fear in his eyes.. "Prepare myself?"  
  
"To fight for your life, are you ready?"  
  
~Are you?~  
  
"I'm ready." He nodded firmly.  
  
Ignoring the sinking in his heart for the young boy, Leon tilted his head towards Yuffie who had gotten off her bed and was straightening out her shorts, "Yuffie, let's go join Aerith. She should be there now with the other visitors.."  
  
"Leon!"  
  
He blinked as Yuffie yelled, pointing. Leon looked over at the table where a heartless in strange armour had appeared, bouncing up and down wildly. Heartless.. here. His eyes slid down to where Sora held the keyblade. Of course, it had tracked him.  
  
"Yuffie, go!"  
  
Not spending a further moment, Yuffie moved like greased lightning for the door connecting her room and Aeris'. She banged the door open, hitting something in the process but not caring, she grabbed for Aeris' hand and began to drag her.  
  
"Yuffie?!" Aeris exclaimed.  
  
Hearing this commotion, Leon turned so he could see the face of the boy. Determination. Good..  
  
"Sora, let's go."  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Shadows came.  
  
Sweetness.  
  
Savour the fright and the fight.  
  
Heart and Heartless.. all that was, was no more.. 


	10. 9: Departures

Destroyed  
~  
~ Chapter Nine: Departures  
  
~  
"The lengths that I will go to,  
The distance in your eyes.  
Oh no I've said too much,  
I've set it up.  
That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight,  
Losing my Religion."  
~R.E.M  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
The girl ran faster than Aeris had ever thought possible, the months of long hard honing of her skills had lent her a speed akin to that of a frightened rabbit as she pelted her crazy way down the stairs to the first district, her gloved hand tight about Aeris' wrist.   
  
Her own cinnamon braid felt as though it were coming loose, her breath kept catching in pained lungs as she stumbled to keep up with Yuffie. The ninja seemed to not care if her charge stumbled or not. What was a grazed knee or stubbed toe in comparison to the overall safety of the ancient, the overall well being of the one she had been sent here to protect?   
  
Putting one foot before the other, stumbling her harsh pathways to the door, Aeris tried glancing backwards at the hotel and the sudden explosion of the double doors outward, the frightening apperance of several dark shadows from it. As one, they all slowly turned their heads and looked at her, with shallow, unblinking golden eyes.  
  
"Yuffie!" she yelped, and the girl glanced over her shoulder.  
  
"Dammit!"  
  
Shoving Aeris to one side with a mumbled apology beyond her gasped breathing, Yuffie turned her attention to the doors. Both hands went on one of the panels, and she threw her back into pushing.  
  
As her friend struggled to open it, Aeris found her eyes drawn immediately to those heartless as they..conversed without words between themselves, strange attanae twitching in the place of words and their semi intelligent eyes all not moving from her.  
  
Inching her hand along the wall she had been thrown against in Yuffie's need for speed, she felt re-assured by the bricks, by the solid feel of something real.  
  
Leon was back there, fighting for her. She could feel his strength and feel him as he beat down the Heartless that kept coming in the hotel. Had they been drawn there by the Keyblade?  
  
But, if that was so then why did they all, as one, turn their faces towards her and watch her instead of running back into the hotel where she knew the boy who wielded it was. Why did they study her like some kind of creature put up for inspection.  
  
The cold rush of blood through her veins and the pounding of her heart made her vaguely aware that she had felt this scrutinised once before, this small and insignificant.   
  
Hojo.  
  
Experimented, tortured, hated.. quivering inside as well as out, she felt her own strength of will fail her a moment. And with that minscule laspe, the Heartless began shambling towards her, sliding into the shadows of the floor, jumping over garbage and bannisters.  
  
"They're coming," she said soundlessly, little more than an intaken breath.  
  
It was enough to reach Yuffie's trained ears though, and with a mild look of consternation, she looked over her shoulder where the yellow scarf flapped and at the advancing horde of demons and shadows.  
  
"Aeris, help me push the door..!"  
  
Frozen. She was little more than a frozen object to the wall, to the floor. Held in place, unmoving and unfeeling.   
  
She glanced at the door, at Yuffie straining.. then at the creatures.  
  
~ Magic.. ~  
  
Where had that thought come from?  
  
She hadn't used her powers since that day with the tray and flowers.. she hadn't had time yet to fully explore their limits again, to understand their nature. She wasn't even sure if she could call up magic between herself the aether.. she was-  
  
A hand of one of the heartless snagged in her dress line, as absorbed as she was in her thinking, she hadn't even realised how close they had become. A scream rang from her mouth, and as Yuffie moved her hand down to her shuriken, time slowed again.  
  
It slowed to a trickle of seconds past her pained reality, jangled on her nerve endings and across the very fibres of her pleasure senses. She wasn't too aware of the fire spitting from her fingers, or the painful buildup behind her eyes. Her chest felt tight and the air too heavy for her to breathe. Tilting her head back, her arms came up in defense, leaving trails of peach over intensified sight, and the air turned a vicious yellow.   
  
Sharp pain, sharp pain..pain.  
  
Just as quick as it had started, it stopped.  
  
Nothing but silence and the faint, distant taste of a metallic tang in her mouth.. and slowly she opened eyes she had screwed shut at the last moment. The street was buckled up slightly, but the impression she received was that of the floor having been struck down as if by some great fist, renting it with mindless fury. The air stank of burnt flesh, roasted hair. Lifting her hands slowly, she looked at her fingers which twitched lightly, as if to remember what she had just done, then with a crackle, electricity spun itself from one hand to the next.  
  
"I..I.."  
  
Carefully, Aeris looked to her left and where Yuffie was still holding her shuriken in a hand. Apparantly the magic blast had come off quicker than Yuffie's hand and eye co-ordination had been given time to react. The girl looked shaken visibly, mouth hanging slightly open and then she slid violet eyes across to meet Aeris' green ones.  
  
"I didn't know you could still do that."  
  
"Neither d-did I."  
  
She was quivering, from excitement or horror Aeris remained unsure. Seeing the shaking of Aeris' shoulders, Yuffie leaned over and placed her hand comfortingly on one. The weight anchored her to this reality, the weight reminded her that she was real, the weight kept her stable.   
  
~ Magic, have you returned to me? ~  
  
"Give me a hand, and we'll go get a hot drink at Cid's."  
  
A hand? Seeing eventually what Yuffie meant, Aeris' scrambled across to help by putting all of her weight behind moving the door to the first district, and as her soft brown bangs covered her face, she never once let her eyes be removed from the spot where she had just destroyed the Heartless.  
  
Something had changed, and perhaps she was one step closer to understanding her "key".  
  
The door swung, and together, they ran into the first district...  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
He slammed his way out onto the balcony of the room, followed close behind by Sora, the kids footsteps a harsh clip-clap on the flooring as he fought his way out. Just about to jump, Leon turned his head aside and looked at the tray he'd bought for Aeris, where she had created the miracle of life. Lying next to the workgloves she often used, was her diary in purple fabric. Without a second consideration, he picked it up and shoved it into the inner pocket of his half jacket.  
  
"Sora, come on!" he yelled, and with a harsh shove off landed pretty well in the water of the sewer which ran round the back of the hotel.   
  
From the ground came a gathering of darkness as Sora crashed down behind him with a spray of soil. Leon turned so he could see the kid and the Keyblade he waved about with apparant ease and skill. Did the blade confer on the bearer natural talents or did the boy really have some skill lying dormant for swords?  
  
Pondering this in his mind, her looked back at the shadow which had become a Heartless Soldier. It bounced on the spot then stopped and pulled back it's leg. Moving quicker than the shadow creature, Leon let it spin furiously past him and slam into a wall, dizzying it.  
  
"Leon?"  
  
At his name he gave Sora an appraising look as screams were heard.  
  
~ Aeris... ~  
  
"Don't bother with the small fry, go after their leader."  
  
"I.."  
  
Those blue eyes stared at him helplessly. Like countless eyes did on the day he had been chosen to stand against the Sorceress.. as if the weight of the world rested on his shoulders alone, as if only he could drive back the shadows, as if.. he managed the ghost of a smile for the kid. Today he could die, Sora or himself. It chilled his blood. The thought of dying before.. before getting to tell Aeris.  
  
He would tell her. After this was over, after the madness and chaos.  
  
"Good luck," were his last words, as he turned and made for the small alleyway that connected the back street to the main plaza of the second district. Moving into the open, he could see no indication of Yuffie or Aeris, and no Heartless. Taking it as a good sign, Leon turned on his heel and jumped.  
  
Catching a hold of the lip from the upper streets, the warrior carefully pulled himself over the edge and then stopped.   
  
The ground of the street by the door, just before the fountain, was damaged beyond any normal means, the floor buckled and burnt as if to almost cinders. The air stank and left flapping in a rent of the buckled flagstones was a scrap of pink material. Gasping, horror refusing to wind down, refusing this reality he moved across and picked up the shred tenderly.  
  
There was no blood on it, but then again, there was no sign of Aeris.  
  
Grasping it hard, he moved quickly to the double doors and pushed them open, turning his head so he could look about.  
  
Another scream as a girl ran round the corner in her green skirt with a Soldier chasing her. Unloosing his Gunblade, he pushed her aside, enough so she would move and neatly speared the creature on his blade. An explosion of green energy was about all that happened.  
  
"I..I.." the girl stuttured.  
  
"Get into Cid's shop, now.. have you seen Aeris?"  
  
The girl nodded and pointed mutely down past Cid's and the Triplets house, towards the wide open foyer. Letting the girl stay behind him, hands clenched in the viridian of her skirt, he moved down towards the drop into the alleyway, then jumped down. His hair felt on end and his nerves acutely aware of something moving.  
  
Primal forces, maybe.  
  
Rounding the corner, he stopped at the sight he had never imagined.  
  
Cid and Yuffie were stood either side of Aeris, before the accessory shop in which the townspeople had barricaded themselves, as done so many times before in test runs.. should such a situation arise. That wasn't so odd, but what was happening.. was.  
  
Cid handled what appeared to be a pole with a long curved blade on the end of it, Yuffie on the other side of Aeris was muttering words of encouragement, her right hand clamped over a potions bottle. Aeris stood in the centre of them, hands outstretched before her but with the fingers interconnected. Her face was sheened with light perspiration.. and she fired off lightning bolts easily, each with the detonation of a small bomb as they packed their power into the last Heartless possibly left standing.  
  
Amazed, he let the gunblade drop.   
  
Yuffie saw him first, her own eyes meeting his with a kind of wonder.. and a kind of sadness.  
  
He felt it too. The burning admiration for a creature out of their touch, like Rin' had been. Another world, she belonged to. But he didn't want this one to slip through his fingers, he didn't want this time to be the last time he saw a sweet smile on those lips.  
  
Clenching his hand that held the scrap of pink material, her moved over to her, now seeing the tear in her dress.  
  
She was crying, eyes fixed on the stars with her hands still outstretched. Were they tears of happiness or horror?  
  
Leon flickered a glance at Yuffie and Cid, both who said nothing but also moved back.. to see to the townspeople. As they did, Leon removed his attention so he could focus wholly on the girl who stared wide eyed at the sky. Beautiful green eyes, amazing grace painted on her cheeks and the tears that stained her, tears he wished he could stop.  
  
"Aeris.." he said softly.  
  
"Did you see it?"  
  
Her voice was little more than breathing, but even though she wasn't watching him, he nodded. "Yes, I did."  
  
"Have I become a monster?"  
  
"No."  
  
"It returned to me, when I called it subconciously. All this time, I had dreamt so much lost, only to find it was hidden in me all along." Her eyes trailed down from the heavens to fall on his face, curtailed by dark hair, watching her intently. He brought one gloved hand up, and worked his fingers into hers with wordless comfort. He didn't know what to say, all the words he had promised to say stuck in the back of his throat.  
  
"I'm... scared."  
  
"You don't have to be. I'll be right by your side, always."  
  
Did those eyes blanch in pain? Did they remember words spoken like that so long ago in her distant past? Knowing soon her thoughts would turn to ghosts of a man she used to call her love, and handed her young heart to, he drew her in closer, sliding his other arm about her, under the starry eyed sky.  
  
"I promise."  
  
~ And I never break promises. ~  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
It lay in pieces of armour, whole chunks of it scattered over the pavement and in the fountain. They key in his hand hummed, and shaking his head.. he looked at the strange people before him.  
  
One a dog that seemed to walk upright.  
  
One a duck with a mouth on him, that Kairi would say needed soap.  
  
"So, you were looking for me, right?"  
  
They both nodded, comical characters in their own right, with intent expressions that only made them more comic. In their accents, one a terrible drawl and the other a quick, high squealing, they said together, "Uh-huh!"  
  
"They, too, have been seeking the wielder of the Keyblade."  
  
Sora blinked and looked up at where Leon was coming closer, his hands swinging loosely at his sides and perhaps one of his cheeks glistening with dampness, most likely water. His gunblade was slung at his hip, on one of those many belts he seemed to fancy wearing.  
  
Opening his mouth to ask why, Goofy, the tall dog with a drawl that preffered to beat his victims to death rather than simply pick up a sword and expend much elss energy, said: "Hey, why doncha come with us? We can go to other worlds on our vessel."  
  
Other worlds, other chances. Perhaps see those with keys and chances too. Perhaps find Riku and Kairi.  
  
But even with those happy thoughts, he found it hard to keep the humour in his voice and even stop the brows from lowering in self defeat. "I wonder if I could find Riku and Kairi."  
  
The duck nodded, "Of course!"  
  
Followed in short detail by Goofy's murmured aside to the duck which was followed up with another murmur.  
  
It was a great offer. It offered him so much, opportunity to see the world, to see the landscapes beyond here. His hands tightened in something close to consternation. ~Riku, he would go in a heartbeat. Kairi would call it an adventure. I call it.. a slim chance of finding them again.~  
  
"Sora," at the soft but deep voice he looked over at Leon who held his forehead, "Go with them. Especially if you want to find your friends."  
  
"Yeah, I guess."  
  
As he stared back at his shoes, the squeal spoke up and he looked up at the comical duck who planted hands on his hips and stared right back at Sora, "But you can't come along looking like that. Understand? No frowning. No sad face. Okay?"  
  
The dog laughed and flapped closer to them, his limbs a danger to themselves as well as others, "Yeah, you gotta look funny, like us!"  
  
Donald gave him a shove away, "This boat runs on happy faces!"  
  
"Happy?"  
  
Grudgingly, jumping not for the first time or the last with his leap of faith, Sora ground out a smile at them, a large one that looked more pained than anything. Everyone, even Leon blinked, then the two strange creatures burst into laughter helplessly, pointing and laughing at him.   
  
~Laughter.~  
  
He then smiled for real, and knew he was set on his path.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
She nodded to Yuffie, then tilted her head as she pointed out the boy who was coming down the steps and headed to the end gates of the world, where his companions awaited him. Leon moved first, across to the boy and without a second choice, she too followed the pack.  
  
He had stopped and was looking up at them.  
  
Her fingers tried digging into Yuffie's arm, and for a moment the ninja looked at her strangely.  
  
~ His eyes. Cloud's eyes. So blue.. ~  
  
She was torn between rushing to him and getting on her knees, begging anything for him to find Cloud.. and taking Leon's hand and running away from memories that continued to haunt her. No matter what she did, where she went, she felt like she was always losing, always falling down and missing out on something else.  
  
"Sora," began Leon, "Make sure you're prepared for the journey ahead of you. We don't know how far the Heartless have spread."  
  
Yuffie disentangled herself from Aeris, and cocked her head at him, offering up her usual chirpy grin. "Check out the shops here, they've got some pretty neat stuff!"  
  
Aeris picked up the 100 note she had been holding onto, and offered it to Sora who slowly took it from her, avoiding any kind of contact with her. Mildly, she guessed he had seen the wonderment in her eyes, the pain and panic. "This is from all of us, spend it as you see fit. And this," she handed over a precious elixir of life, the strangely sweet scented liquid a pale blue colour in the vial. "Is from Leon."  
  
He turned to go and walked away some paces, as she too moved away with that uncertain feeling in her stomach. She had seen him in dreams, heard his voice.. had she?  
  
~ Keys. Calling. Keys. ~  
  
Then she felt a light touch on her shoulder and turned, coming face to face with Sora, with the Keyblade master. In soft tones she smiled and said with all the goodwill she sincerely felt in her heart, "I hope you find your friends."  
  
"So do I."  
  
~ It's him. ~  
  
Those blue eyes screwed up slightly, then he tilted his head.   
  
How he reminded her of Cloud.  
  
Of home.  
  
"I know we've never met before, but it feels like I have been waiting to meet you," he murmured.  
  
"I understand.. I feel the same."  
  
"There is a Key in you. Not like this... but, you already know that, right?"  
  
Aeris nodded, hands clenched tightly about her necklace as she still clung to childhood habits.  
  
~ Is this for real? ~  
  
"I.." he moved the Key up and tapped her once, on the forehead with it.. then smiled. "It's unlocked now."  
  
"I'm afraid, of what it hides."  
  
"Hey, no one should ever be afraid, so long as there's light in your heart."  
  
He turned to go, glancing over his shoulder as she said suddenly, "Cloud.. once said something similar."  
  
"Cloud?"  
  
"I.. never mind."  
  
Shrugging, he walked off and shutting her eyes against pain, found herself sliding into one of the tables at the open air cafe. Her hands were shaking and she felt as though she had just run a hundred miles in a minute. Something did feel different. And hardly seeing her friends, she looked up towards the night sky for the first time, with Hope..  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Swallowing, her rubbed his good hand over his eyes.   
  
Hot, too hot.  
  
He had forgotten the force of those feelings, forgotten about how he would have given up the world for her if only she had asked it. Two people in his life whom he had cared for, one he had loved so badly.. he had fought through all these shadows for.  
  
~ What you pursue will be yours.. but you will lose something dear.. ~  
  
He had, he lost his heart along the way.  
  
Only she, his childhood friend was right there next to him through the pain, forcing him onwards with the drive and determination he had always envied.  
  
~ as long as you're by my side, I won't give up, even if I'm scared. ~  
  
He felt lost and alone, no love for him to carry on for, no childhood friend pushing him on. He was.. alone.  
  
"..... Cloud....?"  
  
His head snapped up, eyes widening in disbelief.  
  
Had he heard only another lie?  
  
It seemed sometimes he was going mad, and twisting, he stared up at the night sky and the stars there. Once he had gladly watched the stars with her, and laughed as she had tried to make strange animal shapes from them, then claimed the sky was wonky, that's why they didn't look the way they should.  
  
"Aeris?!"  
  
~ Cloud... I'm searching for you.. ~  
  
Gritting his teeth against tears, he lifted his hands to the sky in supplication.. "Aeris, hold on.. please."  
  
~ Cloud's star and Aeris' star.. they show a great future.. ~  
  
Ignoring the shadows, he wept softly, consumed by confused memories... 


	11. 10: In the Dark of the Night

Destroyed  
~   
Chapter Ten: In the dark of the Night  
~  
~  
"The consequences that are rendered,  
I've stretched myself beyond my means."  
It's Been A While~ Staind  
~  
~  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
The night was darker than the fanning of a raven's wing.  
  
It was spread across the room as to darken it beyond all repair.  
  
A week had passed since they had passed across the edge of Traverse Town, seeking out new worlds and new ways in which to fight the shadows which plagued mankind. Sometimes they came back with word of new places and new sights, sometimes they didn't hear from them for days. The past two days had been silent, one could only assume that they had passed beyond simple navigation, and they would return soon to bolster spirits with news, harbour up doubt and shore the bastions of hope.  
  
The night however, pressed down damply against her skin.  
  
Of late, she had been dreaming in earnest, why she had suffered these nightly torments was beyond her own ability to understand but she twisted and turned with the burning memories. With the icy sharpness of recollections of pasts and faces she had thought forgotten to her, and slowly she screamed in her mind.  
  
She was wearing her thinnest shift, for the weather had turned warm recently, in pale pink. It clung to her slender form too easily, highlighting the curves of her waist and the rise and fall of her chest. It moulded her breasts in relief, and was hitched up about her hips from all the tossing and turning she endured. Long slim legs were entangled in covers as they moved against her will.  
  
Her hands, used to create life and of late, benedicting the power to take it away, were crushed into her silken red pillows. Her skin was pale in the moonlight through open curtains, easily seen to carry a sheen of frenzied sweat. The same sweat glued sugar brown hair to her scalp, braid unravelled about her, the ribbon deadlocked about the few remaining strands of her plait. Her eyes were screwed up in pain, and her mouth slightly open as she dreamed..  
  
What could she dream of any worse, in the night without sounds?  
  
With a painful moan, she turned aside and dragged the covers with her.. a dark stain spreading ever so slowly across her slim form..  
  
~*~  
  
"Aeris, where the hell do you think you're going?"  
  
The hand curled so tightly about her arm, and she tried moving away.  
  
She had been so young then, so vulnerable and so sure that with a wave of her hand she could right all the wrongs of the world about her. But it never worked like that, not now she realised. Sacrifice was always involved, but then.. then she had been so sure..  
  
"I have to do this, let me go!"  
  
"No!"  
  
"Tifa, please.."  
  
Her friend was a good few inches taller than she, looking desperate and wild in the shadows of the night. Her hair was the colour of pitch, her skin so pale that moonlight easily reflected from it and made it glow etherally. The fringe of her hair hid those ruby eyes in deep contemplative shadows, the ungloved hands strong still, one clamped about her upper arm and holding on.  
  
~ Don't let go ~ a small part of her begged.  
  
~*This girl is strong. You see it. But her strength must remain, it must endure.*~  
  
~ I know Planet, I know..~  
  
"I can't let you go haring off into the night. Cloud's ill and you're running away, for all I know, you caused it!"  
  
"No, I didn't." She shook her head, and felt the burning behind her eyes that always preceeded tears. "I just have to go away and do something really important. You won't understand right now, I doubt anyone will when they're so close to it, but if I don't do this then He'll win and think how much that will torture me for as long as I live."  
  
Tifa pulled on the arm, dragging Aeris closer to her, back towards the inn. Gongaga, the place where one of her closest friends and a man she had liked for a long time, used to live. Memories bubbled even then of his kind smile and the laugh he always teased her with when she had found something new or exciting. Zack.  
  
"Listen missy, why can't you damn well wait for us all?"  
  
"Because it won't wait!"  
  
Tifa wore only her night dress and slippers, but Aeris held the added advantage of her weapon, materia and being fully clothed. Digging in her heels she resisted the pulling, mostly, sticking her rod into the ground to add leverage against the insistance of her best friend.  
  
"Tifa, just try to understand!"  
  
"I can't!" yelled the bar hostess, those ruby eyes snapping at her in fury. That wild, untamed heart showing through the darkened depths. "Why should I even try to understand? You're leaving us."  
  
"People do that, people will always be leaving you Tifa but if you don't learn to let go I can never find a way to come back!"  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
In the shock of the statement, Tifa let her grip loosen and immediately Aeris drew her arm away, ignoring the stinging marks of her friend's fingers. It hurt, but right now she had other things in her mind.  
  
The life of the planet, the life of her friends, their futures and the safety of innocents who weren't even aware that about them raged a war to end all wars, raged a battle between two great forces. It may only be a cameo role for her in this, but if she was the only one who could do it then by all the heavens above her, she would do it.  
  
Holding her staff closer to her she murmured, "Juts don't ever stop, Tifa."  
  
"Aeris, where are you going?"  
  
"North, something's waiting for me there. I have to go. I'm being...summoned."  
  
Tifa swallowed, and through the shadows she could see the frustration on those beautiful features. The need to stay behind and protect Cloud, the desperate urge to run with Aeris to the end of the world. "Then I go with you," she said finally.  
  
"No.. no you don't."  
  
But she wouldn't listen, and turned back to go into the Inn.   
  
~*Save her*~ came the command from the Planet.  
  
She had never disobeyed the will of the earth underneath her feet and she too, recognised the fact that Cloud would need Tifa later on, need her much more than she ever would. So sticking a hand into her pocket, she drew out a small green materia and concentrated on it for a brief second.  
  
Tifa stumbled, and then went to her knees, slumped over and snoring lightly.  
  
Dropping it, because her friends may eventually need it, Aeris gathered all speed to her heels and ran.. hoping for the best, and expecting as always, the worst.  
  
~*~  
  
She moaned again and choked out a slow soft crying noise as tears escaped her shut eyelids.  
  
How painful had it been?  
  
How much more painful could it get?  
  
Her hands shook against the pillow, another dream eventually dragging her down...  
  
~*~  
  
"I've thought about it so much.. but never had the ability to come up with anything solid that can be called proof or lack of proof therein. Does that mean that as a being in itself I exist only as an equality of belief and the application of the fundamentals of that belief. Are my foundations built from seconds I spend thinking and dreaming and wishing of better things or reflecting on past mistakes which could only possibly serve to endanger my current state of mind. Did I dream myself into existance, as babies are said to do when inside the womb? Did I make myself a fantasy inside which I would exist solely as a benefactor of my own knowledge?"  
  
She twisted her hands together.  
  
"The world is a wonderful place in many aspects, filled with bright cadences of lovely light and the showerings of songs which only wonder can bring. I may have viewed it with a sense of the childlike and exotic, I may only have pressed about the edges of a world which under a thin veneer of civilisation is in reality, dark and forbidding and waiting to swallow those unwary enough to be caught deep within the traps and pitfalls it makes for us. I have seen my friends struggle on each day and how my heart twists in pain for each and everyone of them. Perhaps that is why..."  
  
Her head tilted.  
  
"No, I don't really tend to think of it like that. They are human, I am merely half human. The side of me which connects me with clarity to the world is treasured for I am blessed with a gift beyond that of simple, normal means and it is that gift which gave me the chance to help my friends once and for all. I was useful. You above all others should know my dislike of sitting still and never having a chance to show how much I could be of use, how much they could need me."  
  
A soft smile approached lips of pink.  
  
"Of course, for him. He reminded me so much of Zack in the beginning, a lot of things, such as they way he would hold his head or cock his hips in the funny little stance that Zack often took to when watching me pot my flowers. But he's not the same person. I think the others had the beginnings of an idea, but the execution of the idea came to me when he was speaking, it didn't always seem right. I could hear the sincerity in his voice and the need to find himself again in those beautiful eyes of his."  
  
She laughed.  
  
"But that's exactly what I have done. I have given him time to find himself, and along the way discover new ways of doing things."  
  
Hands wore expressively, gesturing as the words came forth.  
  
"I would have done so much more for them. My talents were employed for the good of the world, for the futures that could have been spent unseen and unknown, for children who would never know the beauty of a flower, or the spirits seen only at dawn when the brightness of a new day spills over a land waiting for the rain after a drought that is night. I have given everyone a second chance, and it is that which fills me with joy. Perhaps too, they will all find the peace which they can only seek inside themselves. I am no longer sad nor am I any longer worried for their own manifestations of a future which is all their own. They have taken the work I left behind and finished it and in doing so sealed my way back."  
  
The sugar brown locks shook.  
  
"I do not regret. I am happy."  
  
The woman nodded across from her, almost a mirror of her and how she could look in another twenty years. The features were much more elfin than hers in casting, the eyes more tilted and more liquid, their colour a golden green rather than her own pale emerald. The hair was spun with spilt silver, and the skin a little darker in tone. But this woman was her, as much as she was a part of this woman.  
  
"Then you have made all the choices a good Cetra would have Aeris. Your sacrifice ensured the survival of your friends, the dissolution of Jenova and Sephiroth and the future of the planet. You should be hailed as a martyr, an example of your race." The woman smiled, "What would you have of us?"  
  
She took a moment to think, and a moment only for in truth that was all she needed.  
  
"I want.. just the fields and the sky, and a place to remember."  
  
"You desire your Promised Land?"  
  
"I desire my own time, to think."  
  
"Then it is yours."  
  
Aeris smiled at her mother, then made to stand in the silent space of the inner chambers of her mother's home. But the walls wavered a little as Ifalna stood too. She had been told this was a place called "Icicle Inn" in the snow villages in the north of the Planet, the place where she had been born to this beautiful, fey woman and a scientist of incomparable talent. But she remembered it not.  
  
"Wait, one last thing. Why did you reach out, in the end, to Cloud."  
  
"Because, I love him," she replied simply.  
  
And she would, for a long time yet..  
  
~*~  
  
"Ahhh.. so you remember your little soldier.. I have seen him, Ancient.. I have watched his face."  
  
The girl known as Aeris twisted in her sleep, unaware of the shadow over her, not seeing the shadowed green eyes. His hand moved slowly until it hovered over where the ancient's heart would be.  
  
Someone had unlocked her key.  
  
So, she would be the one to face him, would she?  
  
And this time, like the last, she would die..  
  
A tortured moan escaped the girl's lips, brow creasing.  
  
~*~  
  
"Look, look!"  
  
She pointed, unable to contain herself.  
  
He tilted his head and smiled rather calmly at her, the smile full of love and compassion. It was a smile that had etched itself onto her heart, a heart that was divided clean down the middle. One side belonged wholly to him, to that sweet smile and those loving smoky eyes. The other remained the province of a shadowy man from her past with bright blue eyes and a beautiful voice.  
  
Right now though, picnicking with him on the boundary of the world, she was happy enough to remain with her warrior, under the sunlight of a foreign star. He moved closer and slid his arm about her shoulders.  
  
"so, you enjoying the day out?"  
  
Aeris tore her attention away from the stray rabbit as it ran off into the faint stirrings of grass. It did feel good to get away from the stuffy confines of a room and the endless droning of the books that she read.  
  
"Very much."  
  
"We should do this more often.."  
  
"You think?"  
  
He nodded, and pushed some of one of the long bangs back from her eyes. With a small start of surprise, she realised he wasn't wearing his gloves and the stirring contact of his skin set fires in the pit of her stomach. Smiling sweetly, she leant back into him, resting her head on his shoulder.  
  
"Though next time, I cook the chicken legs," she joked.  
  
He laughed.  
  
She loved the laughter. It reminded her that she was alive. And it was painfully true, he had burnt the chicken very badly.  
  
"Whatever you so desire, Aeris."  
  
~ Would he call me love? would he.. ~  
  
They sat for a long time, just watching the day beyond them, her very much aware of the proximity of him in relation to her, the sun beating down on her dark crowned head making her feel warm. Leon perhaps, felt warmer in his denim, and delicately she suggested he take his jacket off, and he smiled teasingly.  
  
"Stripping me already?"  
  
The blush was instantaneous.. and stammering something, she shook her head.. completely unprepared for the sudden and almost hungry pressing of his lips against hers, his bare hands finding homes for themselves on her upper arms. The contact was arousing, and soon she felt herself kissing back with demand.  
  
They kissed for what seemed like an eternity, each kiss sweeter than the last and threatening to pull her senses down from concious thought into something much more dangerous and primal. Scared of these sudden, fiery feelings and also strangely pulled by the desire to give in she eventually pulled away from his kissing, relaxing in his strong embrace.  
  
There was a soft, contented smile on his handsome face, framed by spikes of his lovely dark hair which she had come to adore. Running her hand through it, she softly heard him whisper.  
  
"...I'll find a way."  
  
~ Find a Way ~  
  
~*~  
  
She woke with a small scream, jolting hands to her middle in a panic.  
  
The window was open, the pans of it banging in the wind with some glass shattered on the floor. Her hands came back up to her face and even in the shadows of the moonlight she could tell she was bleeding. It was the same wound that had killed her, and her terrified scream brought the door to her room banging open.  
  
Yuffie stepped in immediately, "Aeris?!"  
  
She cried helplessly, pressing hands to her middle.  
  
"Aeris whats- fuck!"  
  
Another came running in, boxers and shirt and a gunblade in hand, almost falling over Yuffie as she backed up in a panic. "Don't swear.. what's going on?"  
  
Yuffie pointed at her with a tremling hand, but she was beyond hearing. The gash hurt, the old pain and opening her eyes she could see the blood as it welled out slowly. Leon dropped his sword, and put his hands on her, then searched about the room. Yuffie moved across to the window, and with now blurring vision, Aeris watched her go.  
  
~ I'm not dying yet, it's not my time... ~  
  
"The window's open.. did you leave it open, Aeris?"  
  
Painfully she shook her head, as Leon came back and poured the contents of two bottles onto her midsection. The icy relief swamped over her and almost immediately she felt the knitting pain of alchemical potions. Gritting her teeth and bearing it, she glanced up at Leon, his hands also stained with her blood.  
  
The sheer gravity of the relief in her eyes drew her in, and removing one hand she touched the side of his face, leaving dark red smears there. He smiled in return, trembling, shaken, but a smile nonetheless.  
  
"I love you," he whispered, "no dying, not yet."  
  
Blinking at those words, she didn't have a chance to say anything more as Leon moved and went across to the window, and Yuffie picked her up, carrying her away from the scene of her own nightmares..  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
He watched the kid go with bloodshot eyes.  
  
He could have killed a kid, he'd given everything at his disposal, and yet he hadn't even come close.  
  
Sighing, he turned back and found the disapproving gaze of Hades hitting him from a courtyard away, then with a slight whirl of his dark blue robes, the God moved back into the Coliseum.  
  
"Gods.." he said, in a disgusted tone.  
  
"Yes, what about them.."  
  
He whipped about, and found only the shadows, but the voice had been unmistakable.  
  
"Sephiroth."  
  
"The boy moves, the Door within all doors waits to be opened and consume the unwary. They don't know the secret.. I do."  
  
"You're alive?" Disgusted, Cloud found it was all he could do to keep his hands from finding the sword on his back, the strips of bandages he had used in the time when Aeris was dead to peace-bond it. If he was alive then a whole world of trouble for them was only beginning to unfold.  
  
"I've found your sweet little Ancient."  
  
His blood ran colder than ice.  
  
Painfully forcing himself to speak, he said as evenly as possible, "where?"  
  
"Another world, another time.. another sword.."  
  
"Sephiroth!" he yelled, and his hand graped the hilt of the sword coming over one shoulder, but the voice only laughed.  
  
"Relax, puppet.. I have no bother with you. Her Key is unlocked.. and I intend to take it.. and finish the work Ansem won't complete."  
  
"Ansem?"  
  
More laughter.. and as Cloud moved into the shadows of the colisuem, he found no one, not even the traces of bootprints.. 


	12. 11: Save Me

Destroyed  
~  
~Chapter Eleven: Save Me  
~  
~  
"Now that I know what I'm without,  
You can't just leave me.."  
~Evanescence, Bring Me To Life~  
~  
~  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
~He is moving~  
  
I am moving.  
  
~I cannot remember where to go~  
  
I have not forgotten the pathways of the mind.  
  
~I am getting closer to the light~  
  
Beware your shadows.  
  
~I will save them.~  
  
I will destroy them.  
  
~I am everything~  
  
You are nothing.  
  
~My dreams give me power and hope.~  
  
And yet dreams are all she has left to hold onto.  
  
~I will do my my best.~  
  
What then.. what if your best isn't good enough, boy? When then, shall you hide, where and even how? My eyes can pierce even the veils of night that she draws over her pale featured face. What shall you do, when I come calling...?  
  
~The Door to the Light, the Door to the Shadows.. which is which?~  
  
You do not know..? how.. amusing.  
  
~I cannot do it alone..~  
  
See now how the doubt sets in, boy. That key is a bit useless when you begin to doubt yourself, isn't it? And already you feel the bitterness of it clinging onto you. I would laugh, but I am a bit busy right now.. converse your nightmares and wishes elsewhere, I am no genie.  
  
~Where...am I?~  
  
You are lost.. begone.  
  
~And so, I vanish..~  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
She looked down with her wide expressive eyes at the hands that wouldn't stop shaking no matter how hard she held them together and bid them with every ounce of will in her soul to stop. They shook with the undisclosed fear, as she curled herself into Yuffie's bed. Yuffie slept in her room, and Leon in the chair outside the door.  
  
They wanted to take no more chances, just incase.  
  
The inexplicable breaking of her window had roused more than alarm in her guardians, and more than a sense of being watched in her. It had followed her here from the dreams and from the old world, it still clung onto her and draped itself over every single nerve ending, sparking them and setting her afire with curiousity. Who watched her..?  
  
Leon had made notions about a sorceress, and even had Cid thinking it could be.  
  
But Yuffie had known better, and the look before Yuffie closed the door gently, that look. Those violet eyes fringed in heavy black lashes, and the small spark of understanding and fear. They both knew who it was.  
  
Sephiroth.  
  
Had he followed in her spirit from the world of the dead to a world where shadows and light fought the same battle that he, the creature of Jenova and evil, had fought himself so long ago against her and her friends? If that was so, then it was more than likely that he would plan some kind of attack or send someone to eliminate any threat she could pose to him..  
  
Especially now that her magic returned in strength.  
  
What were her dreams trying to tell her?  
  
They had been such a strange blur of her past, bathed in blood and sorrow and those feelings she would never quite hide from a face made serene through suffering. Unlike her friends though, she did know how to hide it so deeply inside herself and mask it with a chirpy attitude that no one had ever been any the wiser.  
  
Everything in those days, had been done for them.  
  
She vaguely remembered voices outside of the lifestream on the day when she had raised up the earth and forced it to act, forced it to see what was going on. Their tears of joy and their fears relived.. it all burnt them and how she remembered with renewed vigor their faces all streaked with emotion.  
  
It had been right.  
  
Their anger, their hurt, fear and misguided distrust. All had been swept away by her calming touch and balming presence to the earth.  
  
~ I could walk a thousand lifetimes, and never do the good I did that day.~  
  
~ "Aeris! Come back!" ~  
  
Cloud.  
  
Her emerald eyes dropped to her hands, the palms cupped and catching the tears of her own making that slid down perfect cheeks to land in their wrinkled and valleyed places.  
  
He had cried out the loudest as Holy Judgement came upon then.  
  
Look, Look what we have done, he had shouted, Look at how far we've come.   
  
They'd made mistakes, but everyone does now and then, right? Was she making her own lifetime mistake right now, with all these burning feelings inside her?  
  
She didn't know if she felt sick or if she was scared.. but whatever happened, she had her thoughts to hold onto and they, as hard as a stone.. were all that were there to save her.  
  
Because if she couldn't save herself, then no one could.. right?  
  
~ Planet.. ~  
  
But no answer came, and suffering without Gods or Demons.. she sighed and let her own thoughts carry her off into fitful sleep for the fifth night since the window breaking.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"I'm leaving," he said quietly.  
  
"But you.."  
  
"I'll come back to complete our contract, but the next tournament won't be for a while and I'm saving myself for the cup you play and deal in, alright?"  
  
"Hey, Kiddo, I'm only reminding you of your responsibilities.."  
  
"The only way I won't be coming back, is if I'm dead and in that case, my soul resides in your 'realm' then anyway, right?"  
  
There was a silence as the large, but slender fingered hand came up to scratch the large, pointed chin. The silence was very palpable and he would have given a lot to have someone come in running and scream, if only to see the one before him jump and panic much like a girl. Of course, that wasn't likely to happen so he settled for simply waiting.  
  
"Alright, Alright.. you go off and do whatever you need to before the Hades Cup.. but should it come to it, I want you back here.."  
  
"Whatever," he retorted and lifted his sword, the once beautiful silk bandages over the blade now little more than dirty and blackened strips which held in them traces of more blood than what coursed in his body, that what his soul could ever be painted in. It rested a moment on his shoulder, then with a slight grunt he slid it into the sheath on his back.  
  
"Be safe, alright?"  
  
He didn't bother to reply to Hades.  
  
Turning, her walked stiffly from the room he was forced to share in meetings with Hades and out into the bright daylight of the world in which the Coliseum resided.  
  
Cloud knew this world was a long way from his own.  
  
He didn't know where Sephiroth was.. or what to do.  
  
But he knew where he would have to start from.. and that was Hollow Bastion. The castle of darkness and death that stood on the brink of forever, the tides of ruin and the edges of the worlds of Magic which collided conveniently enough, right there. His feet felt leaded, they always did when he was to start out on a new journey that could mean life or death, realisation of actual life.  
  
Everything he did, he did to save her.  
  
She wasn't strong enough, on her own. He hated the bitter failure that always plugged his throat up and he felt unsure of what to do now, where to go and how to get there.  
  
But, as the sunlight drowned him and he directed his pale blue eyes towards the sky in their mako enhanced brilliance.. he knew he'd get there somehow..  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"What?!"  
  
"Trust me.. please?"  
  
Leon stared down in all helplessness at the big green eyes which implored him with heart and soul, those slender hands clasped at her front in wild hope. The day was dark, more stars kept fading and as much s he hated to admit it, maybe Aeris was right this time.  
  
Perhaps it was time they made a decisive move towards the end of all reason and back to where this all began for them.  
  
Yuffie had acceeded rather quickly, naturally deferring to Aeris as older, wiser and more knowledgable about things, but the lingering sense of uneasiness was filling the ninja girl as she moved in and out of rooms, packing a few things to go on the Gummi ship with them, towards the shackledown castle.  
  
Leon tried avoiding Yuffie's questioning and almost pushy eyes, and instead looked down on Aeris. He was absorbed in this frail young woman and happily so but.. in the Hollow Bastion, there would be Heartless.. and shadows.  
  
How could he protect her there?  
  
"I.."  
  
"Squall.. please!"  
  
The name froze him.  
  
He loved her more than life.. but.. Hollow Bastion. His grey eyes must have displayed some of his uncertainty, for she moved in and grabbed one hand, squeezing it.  
  
"I'll go.. with or without you."  
  
The tone was like iron and for a moment he stared blankly at Aeris.  
  
Never before had she shown her iron will without the sugar coated sweet reason, and it had pushed him off track momentarily.. then he nodded with a defeated sigh. "Alright.. I'll go."  
  
"Yay!"  
  
"But!" He patted her shoulder, "You don't even go to the bathroom without Yuffie or I to chaperone you."  
  
"Ew, Squall," and she laughed.  
  
He did too.  
  
But the doubt lingered.. as well as that dread, cold foreboding.. he'd not experienced it in so long, not since the day Rinoa had moved them to the star shaped crater.. and once again, he was sure.. he was going to lose the next love of his life.. forever.  
  
(( I know it's short.. next one coming soon!)) 


	13. 12: ReAwakened

Destroyed  
~  
~  
Chapter 12: Re-Awakened  
~   
~  
"Through the wind and the rain,  
She stands hard as a stone,  
In a world she can't rise above.  
But her dreams give her wings,  
And she flies to a place,  
Where she's loved..."  
~Concrete Angel, Martina McBride~  
~   
~  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
It was on the eve of them arriving in Hollow Bastion after a tremendous two day journey past many dangers and now few repairs to their ship, that they docked and she first felt the strange stirrings of something she was helpless against within her. It was dark and curdling but she ignored it for the first night, drinking water and eating their simple meals together outside of the strange castle itself, all camped in tents.  
  
She had lain awake that night, sleepless and fearing the dreams that would surely come to her.  
  
They had gotten worse.  
  
His eyes were always there and she always woke with a nosebleed that could not explain, except by fooling her friends and telling them that it was merely stress that was causing it.  
  
She also didn't want to sleep here, so close to the Heartless and so, so close to the place where Cloud and Tifa had vanished, to where the Sorceress of an unknown world, Summoners and Espers had fought for the Worlds of Magic but all had inevitably been sucked away from the land of living and only a bare handful had survived.  
  
Like her four friends.  
  
She stayed awake, afraid that she would see his eyes watching her.  
  
The next day, she had been hollow eyed with lack of sleep but ate enough to keep her friends' suspicions quiet for at least another day.  
  
So it was that together, as four, they moved into the castle and bravely held their heads high and wished only for the hope that had once died within them to spring forth with all radiance and bring this hollow realm to life with more than empty fears and sickening grief.  
  
The pain in her side had not gone away, only sharpened and constantly she found herself short of breath as they battled onwards and inwards, towards the castle, looking for a place of sanctuary.  
  
The first place they found had been hemmed in by monstrously large Heartless, their faces reminiscent of dog's visages and their eyes all slit pupilled and watching them as they advanced, raising their shields which too had faces and fired off blasts of either fire or ice breath alternately.  
  
She lifted the magic each time and it sprang much easier to her bidding to heal or protect, the winds and water coming easily to her siren call.  
  
But each use of the magic also left her sicker with the passing moments. It was like a part of herself was rebelling against the darkness which festered outside and the light she was trying to call from inside her to counter it. She felt strange and weak, but eventually they managed to fight their way into the Grand entrance hall and camp that night there.  
  
Yuffie cooked the sausages and Leon set up the tents with Cid, and wandering she made her way across to the fountain which was scarred and chipped, the water still flowing into it crystal clear and amazingly beautiful.  
  
Wordlessly, she undid her hair and let the sugar brown radiance fall about her with the hidden highlights of red sparkling in the faint light given off by the magical lamps. Had she turned she would have seen an expression of absolute rapture on Leon's face and one of helpless pity on Yuffie's, both staring at her but never seeing the other.  
  
Putting the ribbon down, she dipped her naked fingers into the water and felt the resonance of it.  
  
Here a battle had been fought, many battles had.  
  
"...Aeris..."  
  
She felt her eyes being drawn downward to the water, and the world became black. The first thing she registered was a lack of noise, as if someone had slipped mufflers down over her ears and blocked the world out from her own hearing range.  
  
Bemused she rippled the water, which slowly shone a deep white.  
  
Looking up, it was as if she were seated on the edge of a waterfall and across the river before her which raged down the waterfalls slide to the foaming bottom, waded a figure in white silk, a flowing robe and a short smock underneath, the night black hair that revelled in the wind that did not touch Aeris, was tied up with silk bandages behind the straight back.  
  
The eyes were those she had never forgotten.  
  
~ Aeris.. ~  
  
Wordlessly in this vision, the figure turned her eyes upwards.  
  
~ Riku awaits, as does Ansem. ~  
  
"Where? I should be ready..."  
  
~No..~  
  
Those ruby eyes came down and met hers.  
  
~From within comes the sickness, re-awakened. Find a way, Aeris... hurry.~  
  
"I am!"  
  
"You're what?"  
  
Aeris blinked and pulled her hand back from the normal water, in the normal and chipped fountain and stared at the face which hovered over her shoulder, the kind seamed face of Cid.  
  
"I am... ready."  
  
He said nothing, and conversation was sparse that night, for which she was grateful.  
  
She felt worse, the sickness that had afflicted her since the strange beginnings of dreams after the magic returned to her, it was getting worse and she only picked at her food, hoping others mistook it for nervousness. The night wore on, cold and evil and she laid awake this night, her thoughts turned towards Tifa and the words.  
  
How could she find a way if she didn't even know Tifa meant? She had studied books, she had read all kinds of documents and deep inside she was sure she held an answer but.. the answer wouldnt turn up with a snap of her fingers, would it? Bitter, she buried herself into her sleeping bag and laid waiting for dawn.  
  
The next day, the took time to solve puzzles and climb the many levels of the tower upon which Hollow Bastion seemed built, the many contraptions and gadgets which delighted Cid and the puzzles which her mind easily latched onto, leaving Leon and Yuffie free for the majority of the fighting which suited her to a tee as far as she was concerned.  
  
She was getting worse.  
  
Just as they were entering the library, she found she could take it no more.  
  
Her feet dragged and caught and with a soundless cry she pitched onto the floor. Hands felt her brow and voices whispered.. but she shook and arched in dreadful seizures.. even as her mind spiralled inwards.. and she lost herself.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
Leon looked out tensely from the stained glass windows in the Library.  
  
This had been where he had first met the gentle flower girl, her eyes raised tentatively to his over the shoulder of her hero, all emerald green and set in a pale vision of pink. Gentle and serene, she had captured him with only one smile and she had never known it.  
  
Pressing two fingers to his forehead, he scowled and felt the scar wrinkle along with it.  
  
How long since he had been here? Almost a year now, waiting and suffering.  
  
The memories all crowded him.. but his thoughts rested wearily on Aeris, and the young Ninja who was sat watch over the still body of the Ancient as she slept and fought some sickness that had left her trembling and sweating, skin pale and her eyes yellowed in the whites.  
  
He could fight anything, but sickness.  
  
Irony and fate.. damn them both.  
  
~ You have to learn to lighten up, stop frowning!~  
  
A smile touched his lips...  
  
~*~  
  
"I'm not frowning.."  
  
"Yes you are, look.. the scar's wrinkling!"   
  
"Whatever.."  
  
She smiled, nose wrinkling up, then looked out over the rolling scenery that spend under the mobile garden. Her shortish dark hair ruffled in the wind and the knee length blue dress and overjacket she wore set off the highlights in her hair easily. The smile was happy and carefree, and those dark eyes saw nothing but the beauty of the world before her.  
  
He sometimes wondered why he could not be like her.. why life couldn't be as simple as simply looking out over the world and seeing a place where no ill ever happened and no wars were ever fought.  
  
But in the porcelain of her cheeks, all flushed now with excitement, there hid a deep and dark secret.  
  
Rinoa was a Sorceress.  
  
She was able to control herself, true and there had been no more threats from the future luckily, but she held the strange and compelling power of those whom Hyne had passed her tremendous powers onto, and she had inherited not one sorceress' powers, but three.  
  
Squall had seen it.  
  
In the past Edea had taken Ultimecia's powers when the future sorceress had been dying.. and so controlled two sets of magic.. and then there was Adel.. Adel had reliquished her's upon her death to Rinoa in Esthar.  
  
What did that make this small girl beside him?  
  
Man's best hope? Man's worst nightmare? Some girl who wouldn't wait for chocolate when PMS came calling?  
  
He hated to think about and scowling he too moved so he could see the world as it rolled past, the endless glades of the southern Galbadia continent, towards Winhill and a memory he would never quite supress as he spent time searching for a place he could call home. But he had it now, didn't he?  
  
"Thinking...thinking, you think too much!"  
  
He glanced down at her cautiously. "Maybe."  
  
"Try and be more, spur of the moment! How else are you going to live if you don't, Squall..?"  
  
"Squall!"  
  
He turned and looked over his shoulder from the small sorceress, and to the group who came towards him waving. A whirl of golden hair.. cowboy boots.. gloves and bright green eyes.. and the memory faded...  
  
~*~  
  
.. This place was affecting him more than he would ever care to admit.. and sighing he looked down at Aeris from his vantage on the stairs.  
  
What did this place hold for the flower girl?  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
~ I know you're coming for me Sora.  
  
I heard your voice on a ship where I hung lifeless in my dreams.  
  
I don't know who I am or what I am but all I know is, I'm scared and I need you here to help me think and give me some time to think all this through!  
  
I've lost where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing.  
  
I've lost my heart.  
  
I had lost my heart.  
  
Everything is a blur..  
  
Keep my secrets and I'll keep yours forever and maybe one day we'll share that Papou fruit together and never, ever be apart. I would really like that, wouldn't you Sora?  
  
I dreamt of the castle.. I used to be at that place when I was young. Why was I sent away? Was it because of Ansem and the shadows.. Aeris told me.. Aeris is lost too.. Sora keep running, KEEP going!  
  
If you don't hurry.. then the door will open without you.. and only you can save us...  
  
I know you're coming for me, Sora. ~  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Yuffie sighed.  
  
"So much to do and so little time, Aeris. I.. I've wanted to say this for a long time and now is as good a time as any because well, you're out cold and can't tell me to shut up. I don't want you to die, I'd die first before that and you know I always keep my word no matter how tricksome I can be. I wanted to tell you how sorry I was that when we first met we got off on the wrong foot but after time together, I swear.. you understood me better than I ever understood myself and you won't ever know how you changed my life by just being in it. I could have grown up to be a compleye selfish brat but seeing you try and even seeing you lose your life it made me realise that, hey.. I don't have to be this way. You gave up everything you ever held precious to you in order to save what was precious, you gave up your future, your life and love and dreams and all you got in return was a watery grave. Once it had all ended I swore I would never let you die should you come back and behold, just when the world was dying and just when everything seemed it's darkest.. you came back to us."  
  
She took and breath and looked down on the pallid face curled about with sweat soaked strands of hair.  
  
"I don't know what's going on Aeris. I've never been this scared or alone. There is no home for us, there is no past because it got destroyed. I wish it hadn't, I wanted so badly to show you just how amazing Wutai is as the new capital of the known world for it's commerce and it's trading and new technology which Reeve pioneered. I wanted to take you to the Da Chao and show you the burial stone of my Mother, I wanted to give you my most inner feelings and memories.. and now you just lie there with death on your shoulder again."  
  
A tear slid down her cheek.  
  
"Don't let it beat you, fight Aeris! Find a way, and fight! Never give in, not so long as there is light.. I won't, Leon won't, Cid won't.. and you won't.." she nodded, "because.. because I know you."  
  
But Aeris moved not.. consumed in her own dreams..  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
"Hello?"  
  
She turned on the spot, and looked about her at the darkness and the dripping of the mako bubbles into the dreams.  
  
She knew this was a dream, for the pain in her side was gone and remained only with a faint sensation of discomfort.  
  
"Aeris.."  
  
She turned, the pain sharper than ever and gasped in horror as from the shadows.. a pair of green eyes waited... 


	14. 13: Your Hand On My Heart

Destroyed  
~  
~  
Chapter 13: Your Hand on My Heart  
~  
~  
"You become a part of me,  
You'll always be my fear.."  
Linkin Part~ Figure.09  
~  
~  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Little girl..  
  
In this strange world...  
  
Your heart's misplaced, as is your trust.  
  
You don't see me.. you don't feel me yet. Your body denies me and your magic refutes me, but you don't see me and who I am until it is too late and then.. then this world will come crashing down.  
  
I watched you in those fields of flowers and grass and listened to you sing songs and invent words for your own pleasing, but now you're stuck here and displaced but not like me. You were given life by the light, where I was dragged back to the shadows that adore me as their master. Ansem doesn't comprehend the beginning, how can he know anything if he never knows where everything starts and ends?  
  
But you, a mere girl, a small child who plays among those green stars, you understand more than he will ever know and how it shows upon that fragile face and the scarred lips of rose. Your soul shines like a light in the dark and now I seek to consume again.  
  
Why?  
  
Fear?  
  
Racial hatred?  
  
Disgust?  
  
None of those.  
  
I am not my mother, I do not remember the origins of my race nor do I ever wish to be thrust with those obligations. I am born of a gene spliced between human and jenova.. you of the Cetra and human and who therefore inherits the more power? Who inherits the grace of the stars and has the very earth sing her to sleep?  
  
Do you know what eats me up inside, little girl?  
  
It has eyes of green and a tail of hate and the sting is more bitter than any poison..   
  
Envy.  
  
I am jealous of you, I revere what you are and hate myself for never being able to acheive what you have. So I take the easier route in this life and do all that I can do now, I force you down in the shadows and hope to make you like me, as me. I will destroy you, I will have you and hold you and the shadows become you. Remember me Aeris, in your dreams and in your soul, for now I have hands latched inside you for that terrible need for you to live in your desperate past.  
  
It is gone.  
  
But you and I, we live on... and now I have you, little bird, cupped in my hands.  
  
And you shall...suffer.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
She felt her way along the shadows, towards the eyes and presently light flooded down onto the eyes and illuminated only the figure with a kind of bright halo over white hair.  
  
Her breath caught.  
  
For a moment, she had thought this was Sephiroth, not the girl Kairi she had seen earlier in her dreams, fevered and sore.  
  
It was a young man, his head bent so he stared at the ground and on his knees, folded over slightly like a broken paper doll. His hair was cut to his shoulders and left in spikes over his eyes there stared down, green and full of magic and promise but despite the halo of light circling his form he seemed broken and torn.. he seemed almost swallowed by the light.  
  
"E-excuse me?" she whispered softly.  
  
He gave no response to her, instead turning his face and looking off into the dark. Aeris lifted one brow, for his profile was strong and she guessed he would be handsome when he grew, not in the way of Leon's dark and brooding looks, or even Cloud's guiless and sometimes innocent demeanour.. but strong and foreboding, with the force of charisma behind them to draw to him people.  
  
What did he stare at?  
  
She turned to look and saw nothing but the gaping darkness of the dream-scape looking back, sightless and voiceless but definitely malevolent.  
  
When she looked back, she saw the boy had lifted his head and was looking directly at her, the pale green eyes almost a direct mockery of her dreams about Sephiroth, about the violence and blood. He lifted hands in his dreams, and she could see the very violence there she had tried to push away, staining his clever fingers and open palms, dripping onto the floor where it vanished into nothingness.  
  
"You're in my dream," he said in an almost monotone tone, and then with a nod, he looked her over.  
  
Aware of the intensity of the scrutiny she nodded and stayed fast where she was. She always felt the urge to fiddle or fix her hair whenever someone looked her over in such a manner. But a small part of her sensed that this boy needed a connection to reality again, from this prison of dreams.  
  
A connection she lacked right now.  
  
"Yes, and you are in mine."  
  
"Our dreams have crossed?"  
  
"I imagine so.."  
  
The eyes looked back up at her from under the ridge of spikes that were set, like icicles on his brow. "What is your name?"  
  
"Aeris Gainsborough."  
  
Was it her imagination or did the eyes flicker to the ribbon in her braid, then to her chest? Did this boy know something of her past.. curious she pressed with her own questions, sitting down before him and tucking her skirt modestly about her pale legs.  
  
"What is your name?"  
  
"Riku."  
  
~ Riku! Kairi... ~  
  
Blinking, she felt a burning sensation rise up in her throat, and looked away reflexively, the residue of the magic unlocked inside her suddenly as bright and as strong as the sun and it faded then shone brighter inside her.  
  
Riku, the boy that the Keyblade Master had been looking for, the companion of his childhood.  
  
"I-" she began, but stopped as a strange wailing assaulted her nerves and sensations, and the boy too, despite wincing, reached out and covered her eyes with his hands.  
  
"Don't listen!"  
  
Helpless, she covered her ears and waited for the tremors to stop, feeling the convulsing and shaking of Riku as he held onto her, then he fell back and slowly she opened her eyes and removed her hands.. a smear of blood leaving a ring about her eyes from where he had pressed his hands in all earnest.  
  
The dreadful sounds had stopped.  
  
"Riku.." she breathed and winced, reaching out to touch his face.  
  
The boys eyes were ridden with blood that trickled down from bloodshot eyes, onto his cheeks and leaving ghastly smears of death and destruction down cheeks that should never know such a touch. The hair about the ears was tainted red, but even though she could feel his pain as soon as her fingers touched his face, she didn't pull back nor did she wince for him.  
  
She knew he didn't want pity.  
  
"It's him.. I should never have made the deal."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Ansem."  
  
She blinked.. Ansem. The scientist who had fallen into madness and shadows was the one making the terrible keening and hurting this boy, she didn't understand.. and it showed plainly on her face, so he explained.  
  
"Ansem seeks the door to the ultimate power, the shadows and the darkness, to be all his. He uses the Heartless and others to reach this goal.. I was one of those others caught up in this, he thought that if he had captured one who could wield the keyblade then he too would have access to the powers it contains. But the Keyblade was smarter than that, and chose someone who would be able to control it better than me as I sank lower and lower into the shadows and sickness. I got too close, and no matter what I tried, Sora's heart was always stronger and always will be.. even now, as Ansem uses my body.. I am stuck in here.. and Sora comes.. for vengeance."  
  
"Riku...?"  
  
"Ansem is a madman!" he exploded, teeth gritted and she shied away from the force he imbued the words with. "Don't feel sorry for him or for me! I'm ruined now, he Destroyed me! He's going to destroy everything I ever knew or wanted.. then what do I do?!"  
  
Aeris let her hand rest on his bloody one, and smiled.  
  
Once she had faced something like this young man's dilemma, and knew right now, this was one of the things she had to do. She had found a way for this young man, not boy. She could give him her light, her wisdom.. and set him free.  
  
"What do you do.. I'll tell you what you do, Riku," he looked up at her, and faintly his eyes flickered with an emotion she clung to fervently and always, hope. "You get up and fight, you never stop! Even when everything looks the darkest.. there will always be a light to guide, trust in that."  
  
"Ansem.. used to speak with a man named Sephiroth."  
  
Her blood quickly chilled as she stared down with a smooth face at Riku. How random that comment seemed, but this meeting too was strange. Her entire life after the Heartless had seemed a dream anyway, and a small voice told her she was always stronger in spirit than body, this place was her natural element.  
  
"He did, did he?"  
  
"He knows of you, Aeris. Ansem was told details of you, and how dangerous you were, but you don't seem that dangerous to me. You gave up your light for the world.."  
  
"It seemed right at the time."  
  
He shook his head, "I'm not that selfless.."  
  
She smiled then, "Aren't you? You came all this way for Kairi, for her alone and everything you accepted was in faith for her life.. if that's not selfless, then what is?"  
  
"I..." then he shrugged and narrowed his eyes shrewdly, "but if you died, then why are you alive?"  
  
~ Because I'm trying to find a way.. that's why. ~  
  
"To help you, I think.. to help others."  
  
"Be careful Aeris," he warned and stood, starting to slink into the shadows, leaving her in the fixed halo of light that streamed down onto her folded form and bathed her dress in a strange halo of pink, chapping her hands and cupping her fragile face, "the sickness is in you."  
  
~In me? Now..what?~  
  
Dreadfully, the light switched off.. and shadows crowded and drowned her...  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
His form felt twisted and shallow.  
  
Over a month spent fighting his way here, and now on the edge of it he was relegated to the form of the very creatures he had fought, but above all, he had helped defeat Ansem/Riku.. and also in a way, helped bring Kairi back to life much to his own relief and he was sure, the secret relief of Riku before he had fled.  
  
Hopping his way into the entrance hall, he blinked his bright, orb like eyes and was met with the stuffy stares of Donald and Goofy.  
  
The journey had taken it's toll on them.  
  
Goofy looked like he hadn't slept in a week, with heavy bags under his doe-like eyes, his hair unruly under his baggy cap and his clothes all dirtied and the shield nicked. But he had grown more confident, more self assured about what he wanted and less willing to accept whatever someone gave to him.  
  
Donald had lost weight, his clothes hanging slightly from him but his magic was second to none. The small heartless he had become could feel the blaze of magic coming from the duck creature in was drawn to it inexplicably. Kairi was backed into a corner, in one hand she held rather loosely the keyblade he had helplessly dropped upon turning.  
  
His friends leapt for him and quivering he jumped over their heads, landing badly and rolling over.  
  
Kairi stared at him, with fear in her bright blue eyes..  
  
He looked up at her from his prone position on the floor.  
  
~Sora?~  
  
Then tentatively she came forward and picked him up, holding him at her eye level and trying to stare into his depths.. trying to see some small part of him.  
  
He wiggled his antannae back at her.  
  
"Kairi, gee, be careful!"  
  
"That's a heartless!"  
  
"I know but.. it feels like Sora.. I can almost sense him.."  
  
Wordless, they watched as she brought the heartless to her chest. Pressed close, Sora shut his yellow eyes and prayed silently even as he fell into the darkness..  
  
His heart, her heart, and the magic of her own special power grabbed and twisted at him, pulling him back to reality.  
  
"Sora!"  
  
He opened his eyes and pulled away, looking down at Kairi.. who gently smiled back...  
  
And he knew, for a split second.. that Aeris Gainsborough had been right. No one should be afraid as long as there was light in their hearts.. and he had found his again..  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Whispers. I can hear them now.. stronger in the shadows clawing at me. They're hurting me!  
  
~Afraid of a little pain?~  
  
...!  
  
~ Ahh.. little little bird... I'm in you. ~  
  
The sickness... is you?  
  
~I told you once.. I would follow you anywhere. I am the shadows, I am the air you inhale, I am the faces you see, the dreams you wrap yourself tightly in. I am the food you eat and the water you imbibe, I am the sweetness of your voice and the tap of your feet, I am the way, the word and the Everlasting. ~  
  
Why?  
  
~ I shall Destroy you. ~  
  
Is it not enough to leave me alone?  
  
~ But you will not leave me alone, either? We both seek one another's destruction, death and deviance... One way or another, we are fated for war and battle, you and I, our spirits locked in eternal struggle. In the end, Aeris, lies only death and chaos and madness. ~  
  
You are the one who is mad.  
  
~ So sure? So sure... I am going to use your body, Aeris.. much like I did Cloud's.. much like I have seen Ansem do.. ~  
  
I shall fight!  
  
~ How? Even now, I have spread you thin with sickness. ~  
  
Why not simply face me like a man!  
  
~ Because I'm a spirit.. a feeling and emotion. Here in the shadows, I can be and live.. but in the real world I am but a sensation, a shade of everything I was. Just because *you* were given a body in your light blasted lands, do not think the demons of myself would give me form because they did not.. I am lifeless. ~  
  
...I see now.  
  
~ I infest and intake, I keep you. ~  
  
The others shall know..  
  
~Never, sweet Ancient.. ~  
  
With my last breath, Sephiroth, I shall see you die.  
  
~ No, Aeris, with your last breath you complete the work I started.. and elevate me to a god, born of shadows... hahahahahaaa ~  
  
Never.  
  
~Never, say never.. You are weak. I have Destroyed you.. and soon I shall destroy your little entourage too.~  
  
Leon..Yuffie...Cid..  
  
~Remember, I hold your heart, in my hands...~ 


	15. 14: Destiny

Destroyed  
~  
~Chapter 14: Destiny  
~  
~  
"What... would I do.. Lonely as you?  
Pleasure or Pain I can't choose.."  
~Foo Fighters, Lonely as You.  
~  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
She opened her eyes, and looked out at the world.  
  
Yuffie, who had fallen asleep beside her, suddenly snapped awake at the quick movement of Aeris sitting up, then putting a hand to her head.   
  
The little brat had survived, more annoying than ever as she chirped her good morning's to Aeris, asked her if she wanted a drink, if she needed to wash because she had been sweating a lot whilst she slept, if she needed a change of clothes and how she would let her be once she had checked her temperature.  
  
Aeris endured it all with good grace, her emerald eyes shaded and looking mildly dazed, her voice cracked and warbling as she asked for a glass of water.  
  
The faint scent of clean air hung about the place they were half camped in, the Library. Stacks and rows of shelves all lined with heavy volumes reached up as far as she could see when she tilted her head from her makeshift bed under the stairs, the fringes of floppy and lank brown hair catching across her vision. It wasn't the same, she mused as she brushed the hair from her eyes and Yuffie dashed away.  
  
Hollow Bastion.. it made sense now that Ansem would take such a place of learning as the well of his thoughts and contemplation.  
  
"You're awake."  
  
She looked down from studying the books to land green eyes upon the tall and muscular form of Leon, decked out in leathers and denim and half smiling at her. Did the boy know it made him look nervous and weak, the smile that cracked his icy facade? Her mouth lifted as if fighting something and smiled with hidden sourness back.  
  
"I find that is what being sat up and talking entails.."  
  
He blinked those smoky eyes a moment, as if unsure and hurt by the quick comment, then a swift shrug of his shoulders and it was like a veil being pulled between them and she almost laughed. How predictable.  
  
Just like him.  
  
~But.. I can see now why, Aeris. ~  
  
The spark of light beat against the inside of her skull, screaming in frustration. Laughing softly under her breath, she took the glass of water which the ninja gave to her with steady hands, and her glowing green eyes considered her next big move..  
  
~ Just like him.. how.. predictable of you, my light.. ~  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Her hands slid down the glassy black wall where the images faded with a squeak of sweaty skin and lowering her head she fought the strange impulse to cry.  
  
"I can't believe this," she whispered helplessly, and looked about her at the endless darkness punctuated only by the faint glow of light which she conciously emitted. Like a safety light, a night light to stave off madness and shadows that she knew would eventually try to swallow her whole. There had to be some kind of way out.  
  
Aeris Gainsborough refused to sit down and let this defeat her.  
  
Helpless, she beat her hand again against the dark and tried ignoring the vicious howls of glee about her. She had no way of knowing how time passed here, but she felt no weaker nor no stronger, tiredness did not even seem to wear on her here. So she kept fighting.  
  
"I refuse!" she yelled, her voice cracked.  
  
"I hate you! I hate this! Not again!"  
  
Her hands were getting painful along the outside line where she was hammering the wall.   
  
"I'll get out of here, someone will know that it's not me, Sephiroth! Get out of my body! Why can't you just leave me alone.. why?!"  
  
"Because he craves attention.."  
  
Something was glowing a faint blue over her shoulder and turning away from the slickened walls she let her eyes fall fully upon the glowing figure before her. It was a young girl, the young girl she had spoken with a few times before in less than words, in emotive ideals. She knew this girl, her soul sparked with recognition and with a couple of steps she moved closer to the indistinct figure. It was hard to tell that it was a girl with the eyes, for the outline was faintly androgynous, wearing no clothes and the hair was cut short to slim shoulders.  
  
The girl's eyes however, gave her away. Large, bright blue and lashed long.  
  
Eyes of purity.  
  
In those eyes was the innocence she had lost so long ago, so many cold dark days in her past when she had been called to arms by the Planet.  
  
"But the danger had come, too quickly. Your people had moved too slow.."  
  
"Princess, what are you doing here?"  
  
The blue eyes blinked, but did not leave the ancient's face, searching through her as if for some kind of answer which lay hidden under layers of protection. "I have come with a warning."  
  
Aeris stopped short of the aura which the princess of Heart emitted, stopping short of Kairi and the softened look across her face. It was a look of such pity it almost made the Cetra girl want to scream, and beat her fists against the walls of her prison, but also it contained a mantra of hope which she found herself clinging to.  
  
~ Never give up.. find a way... ~  
  
"Tell me," she whispered, rubbing dirtied hands down her pink dress' skirt. It was strange, how those eyes seemed to read her thoughts, read her like she was an open book.   
  
"Once the door opens, it opens another lock.. there is your destiny awaiting you, Ancient. The key to this, is you. Do not fail, do not fail yourself, the trust your friends have placed in you, the trust the planet gave to you and the trust of all futures."  
  
"I am no-"  
  
"Destiny, Aeris, calls you. And it will find you, one way or another."  
  
Aeris brought her hands up to her neck in her age old defensive manouver, the soft fingers curling in fright about the thread necklace and feeling the small strands that were tightened at the nape of her neck, the hollows of skin, blood and tendon. For that moment she was far too aware of the silence growing in her ears and the deafening sound of her heartbeat inside her chest, she was sure she shook and swayed with every loud drumroll of blood, her own face growing hot.  
  
One way, or another.  
  
How many roads? She had chosen her own path a long time ago when no other option had been available to them, the knowledge implanted into her by the Temple Guardian, the sure courage that had fueled her every step and pushed her down the available ways towards victory.  
  
It had been the hardest journey of her life, leaving behind the comfortable security of her friends and all the things she knew, some she had barely had the time to know or get to know better, some faces stuck forever in her memory like a film set on pause, flickering with static and caught between words.   
  
But, she had not cried once.  
  
Aeris Gainsborough was made of sterner stuff.  
  
Never had she felt so helpless and alone as she did now, never. Reaching into the light inside herself, she sought to draw herself closer, and as she did the shadows about her gained strength, pulsing towards her.   
  
In fright she let go and looked back towards Kairi who smiled.  
  
"You'll figure it out.. like I did. Like Sora is doing.. like Riku will do." The head tilted, "you are, after all, the Power of Light."  
  
"I'm what..?"  
  
But the figure was gone, dissipated into the shadows like some strange and fey breeze that just caught at the attention.  
  
Circling on the spot, Aeris tried looking into the shadows, her eyes soft and distracted. The Power of Light? No, all she had ever been or wanted to be was a flower girl, left alone with her blooms and daylight dreams of romance. Not some powerful warrior or hero, just someone with a job to do no matter what the consequences were.  
  
She doubted she could be so callous now towards herself, towards how others felt. Because..  
  
~ Because back then, you had always thought you would come back. ~  
  
She turned, half expecting to see Tifa behind her in the white robes.. but instead there stood a girl, about her height wearing blue. A blue overcoat, a short skirt with blue shorts hidden under it, a blue shirt half buttoned up, and blue arm warmers. From her back, there hung strange things, like wings but on fire.. gleaming and glittering with pale red power.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
~ I am one who passed on. ~  
  
"You.." Aeris frowned, "You're not from my world, are you?"  
  
~ No. I am the Sorceress Rinoa.. ~  
  
That caught the Ancient's attention, and she backed off a little, much to the dark haired Sorceress' amusement, for she slid a hand about her own waist, the other covering her mouth as she laughed.  
  
"I..I.."  
  
~ It's alright, I won't bite you. I know about .. Squall. He will always be there for you, you know. I was lucky enough to have him as my Knight, and now, he is yours. ~  
  
"But.."  
  
~ I am passed on, now Aeris. Passed on as much as I can, for I too linger in the shadows until someone can end the madness Sephiroth is manhandling.. until both he and Ansem are destroyed along with the Heartless. ~  
  
Release them.  
  
She thought she understood now..  
  
Find a Way.. to set them free.  
  
Bending her head, she no longer fought the tears. It all came down to this again.. to the destruction.  
  
"I am, only a flower girl.." she sighed softly, sugar brown hair about her.. as wings of fire closed about her in an embrace of sisterhood, of care and love.. and of hope.  
  
"Save us all," was the whisper, as the ghost passed soundlessly through Aeris.  
  
"I will find a way," she promised.  
  
This time, she knew that it was all the same.. and instead of going blindly to her own funeral.. she saw with eyes, unclouded.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
He had clawed his way here slowly, but surely.  
  
His distant and winding path had taken him across many worlds, some inhabited by Heartless and some not, all with people who waited for the resolution, waited for the final door to swing open and bring either the holy judgement of Kingdom Hearts, or the shadows of eternal fear, death and corruption.  
  
He didn't know how long it took him, perhaps weeks.  
  
All that burned in him was the terrible desire to be by her side again, knowing the danger.  
  
Alive!  
  
After so long...  
  
Long since the shock had worn off, Cloud had sat himself on the steps of Coliseum, and with tears tracking stripes down his flustered cheeks, he had cried his relief into the night, and also his newfound anguish.  
  
She was alive. Aeris was alive. The cries of happiness at knowing his love lived on, was marred by the strange fear and horror that Sephiroth too knew, no matter what his state.  
  
She was so delicate and gentle, she needed his protection, especially from a monster in the league that Sephiroth was.. unlike anything else, even the Gods trod lightly about the form and feeling that Sephiroth had become. Expulsion from the throes of death, had left him bodiless unlike Aeris.. and now he was free to torment her.  
  
Or kill her.  
  
Painfully, he stood up from the grassy knoll he had been taking a small rest upon, then shaded his eyes and looked out over the night-lit world of Hallow'een Town, and all the heartless he had fought off, much to the townspeople's delight. Somewhere on this world was the next step, towards Hollow Bastion.  
  
Towards his Love.  
  
And, towards his Hate.  
  
His hand tightened on the large sword's handle, and with a stubborn edge to his half hidden jaw, Cloud Strife set off down the hill.. and towards his own destiny.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"Yuffie?"  
  
She looked up from tying together the packs for the day, they were making their way today towards the topmost tower and where the door to the end of all darkness or all light would open. Leon stood over her, his silhouette blocking the strained light from the picturesque stained glass window.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Can I have a word.. it's about Aeris."  
  
The young ninja let her brow furrow, and glaced across at Aeris who seemed wholly absorbed in the books that drew the eyes, from the top of the room to the very bottom in long bookshelves, each and every one full to bursting. A vault of knowledge, Cid had called it. Then she looked back up at Leon and noticed that he kept his attention firmly on her.  
  
"Sure.." she straightened, leaving the packs by the water canteens and unwrapped food which lay waiting on the table, dusting her hands off and moving over to Leon by the long windows. "What's wrong?"  
  
"Does she seem, different?"  
  
"Aeris?" Yuffie turned and leant against the glass, shadows of red making her hair a sweet soft brown and flustering her pale skin and yellow scarf to shades of orange.  
  
Leon nodded, his longish hair moving with him as he did so.  
  
The girl noticed how he kept trying to squint at her, as if looking for something else than what he saw. She could see no reason why he should, but then, after her experience with Cloud, or to be more specific, the male loner type, she guessed they all were like this. She gave a small lift of one shoulder, "she seems pretty much the same to me."  
  
"You think?"  
  
"Of course.. why shouldn't she?"  
  
"Yuffie..?"  
  
"Yes, Leon?"  
  
He paused, then looked down, "I'm in love with Aeris."  
  
She stayed silent for a while. It wasn't anything she didn't really expect, but she was the tomboyish kind herself, more interested right now in fighting and playing, than men or love. It all seemed a bit too involved for her, so she left it at that. But over time she had seen how the lone wolf had melted towards Aeris, had given into his love and become helpless against whatever the Ancient wished. Cloud had been something like that.  
  
Shades... Cloud!  
  
What would he say? Well, do... more like. Tifa had given up on him, more than happy for Cloud to be with Aeris so long as their friendship always remained strong, and it had done.. she had even supported him in all his crazy quests for the dead flower girl. After so long, did Aeris feel more for Leon than Cloud? Did Cloud feel less for Aeris?  
  
Feeling like piggy in the middle she nodded and pushed off the glass window, her fingers making the glass shiver lightly. "I kinda guessed."  
  
"You..You did?"  
  
Yuffie nodded and moved to the food to start wrapping it up carefully in handkerchiefs, to be placed away in the pack. Dried fruit, bread that still remained soft somehow. Shortcake, mint cake, sweet water from the fountain. A few pieces of dried meat were also divided evenly up between the meal sets.  
  
"Are you alright with it?"  
  
"Leon," she said slowly, then looked up at him. "I don't pretend to understand love, not fully. I'm a bit too young right now. One day I'm sure I'll be sighing into my pillow every night over some guy who may or may not love me. What I do know, is.. Aeris' heart is divided, in one half lies her past, lies Cloud and everything she knew. And in the other half, there's you. Leon, aka Squall, some strange guy from a foreign world whom she grew to know and possibly love as much if not more than Cloud. If you're expecting me to have some wild and easy solution then I'm afraid I can't give it to you.. only my re-assurances that no matter, we'll all, always be friends."  
  
Leon frowned, but nodded.  
  
"And in answer to the other question.. I'm alright with it." Yuffie pushed one parcel into his hands, "I feel sorry for you, Leon."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"What happens if she dies.. again? Two men both helplessly broken and looking for her? I don't know.. I don't.. never mind."  
  
Turning away she heard him mumble something, but too scared to keep thinking along those same lines, Yuffie Kisaragi bent to do her chores willingly and without grudge or grumble. She hated thinking like that.. hated herself for the thoughts.. and for how real they seemed to her...  
  
What if..  
  
Yuffie shut her eyes and shoved the food blindly into her own rucksack.  
  
One way or another, someone would end up destroyed.. and she would be, as ever, left to pick up the pieces.. 


	16. 15: Truth

Destroyed  
~  
~Chapter 15: Truth  
~  
~  
"Sometimes what I see in your eyes,  
Is never heaven at all.  
Sometimes, when all your silence cries,  
Down the lies all fall."  
~ Original Poetry, by Bhryn Astairre  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
The door was here.  
  
The time was now.  
  
As the old saying went, there was no time like the present, and this time was all his for the taking, most assuredly.  
  
Ignoring the strange sea of shadows, he gave himself finally over to the darkness and lit his own soul at the bonfire of vanities, let himself be washed away and consumed by all his hate, his fear and his anguish, just waiting for the small meagre parts of him to fall down with disgust and dsigrace, for now he had become something else, something more. He was..  
  
He was close to being a God.  
  
He understood so much.. and now the door just needed him and the Keyblade Master.. that annoying little boy and his animalistic sidekicks who were simply waiting to have their proverbial stuffing get knocked out of them by him and all his all consuming powers.  
  
This place was darker than Hollow Bastion's depths had been, shadowed with the blood of innocents and pitted with skulls and cracks and dark deeds. Yes, he belonged here, in this dank place. The walls of his confines seemed non existant and about him he could create any world he so desired to make and behold, his own small fantasy of his choosing.  
  
Sephiroth had only dreamed of this day.  
  
He would never understand.. he would never own this power and place.  
  
"Do you hear me, Sephiroth?!" he laughed madly, lifting his hand to the darkness and it swirled like milk in water, a concocted smoke that drew about with sudden raw flashes of colour, painting a landscape.  
  
It was here that the child's body he was using, this place the child would remember best and be more at ease in, more easily susceptible to failure and disgrace and chuckling to himself he watched the skyline become a soft pale blue, lit with hidden highlight of gold. The ends of his vision took on the roiling green and blue of a beautiful sea, the world under his feet becomign soft, pale gold sand that rustled faintly. Behind him it drew up in rich mounds of brow, forming a walkway and the small pathways up to the high treehouse, around to the secret place at the base of the tree where the children had imagined a monster lived.  
  
In there lay the door, to this world.  
  
Still laughing, his insanity deeper than any outsider would care to guess.. but he felt sane, incredibly sane and in control of all his faculties.   
  
Soon, he promised himself, soon they would all know the truth, and he would be...  
  
Victorious.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"I'm ready," he said, looking down at the girl whom he was fighting for.  
  
The keyblade chain his weapon now wore, had changed it into a long, spidery looking weapon with incredible power, the prongs of the keys waiting with malice for the next fight and glistening in the strange light which Traverse Town lived by.  
  
"Are you sure, Sora?"  
  
"Of course, Kairi!"  
  
She however, drew her eyes down from his.  
  
They stood in the secret cave with Leon used for his sword training when he had been here but the kindly magician, Merlin, had shown him the way into the cavern, telling him Kairi had found it much easier to be there and by water. The cave itself was pockmarked with water aging, and the many slash marks of Leon's gunblade. The wals glowed softly, as if in response to Kairi being there, the very power she appeared to exude from her skin and left everyone speechless.  
  
The water pooling close by also seemed to glow with strange intensity, but it was clear. Much clearer than any water Sora had ever seen in his life, and giving he and Kairi some space, his friends Donald and Goofy were sat by the water's edge away from them, skipping stones across the surface.  
  
"I'm afraid, Sora," she confessed softly.  
  
"Why? I saved you, didn't I? Well, Riku did most of the saving but I helped some and now you're alright so you don't have to be afraid any more.."  
  
"I.."  
  
"Please, just smile once for me?"  
  
She looked up with her pretty, heart shaped face and then gave him a dazzling smile which as ever, set his heart to thumping faster than he had thought possible. The hair crowning her head was it's soft plum red, her eyes bright with some unspoken emotion and suddenly he knew she was afraid.. and nothing he would say or do would ever take that fear away from her beautiful eyes.  
  
What was the Princess of Heart so afraid of?  
  
Catching himself before he asked that very question, he let himself blush slightly and tucked his arms behind his head in his old fashion. A memory of the past, a small reminder of who he was and still was underneath the Keyblade and the responsibility it fostered within him. He was still Sora, running down beaches and falling in the water, dreaming shared dreams of building a raft and going away.  
  
"Thanks," he said, gruffly.  
  
Kairi laughed and covered her mouth partially with a hand, looking cute as a button when she did that.  
  
"Hey, well.. promise me you'll come back."  
  
"Alright, I'll come back, when it's all over.. you, me and Riku.. all of us."  
  
"You really promise?"  
  
Sora opened one eye and looked curiously down at Kairi who was digging her shoed toe into the sand and drawing strange patterns.. then nodded, "Yeah, I really promise."  
  
"Well, then.. this is for you."  
  
Something slid into one of his hands, and moving his arms from behind his head, he opened his white gloved hand to get a better look at what it was. Kairi now had her back to him and was staring out over the water, leaving him free to study the strange item.  
  
"A keychain?"  
  
"Yeah, it's mine.. so, you have to come back to give it back to me."  
  
"I.." he closed his hand firmly about the keychain and nodded, "of course. I won't be long then.. be safe for me, alright?"  
  
Kairi said nothing, dipping her head in a brief nod. The light of the cavern illuminated her with a steady, pale green glow, but she never once after turned to look at him. Was she afraid he would die, that this look at him would be her last one?  
  
Afraid of what he was now thinking, Sora gestured to his friends who looked at one another, then also stood up, and trudging through the water to the opening, they all made their way back up to Traverse Town, and their own paths.  
  
Left behind, Kairi sank to her knees and softly began to cry..  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
~*~  
  
I feel so lost..  
  
I think I am meant to be here.  
  
I've come so far from whence I began, all those days ago on my own, slipping through the strange backstreets of a city I was used to using to my advantage, my size slender and my movement's barely noticeable. I think it was then that I knew I would never be a strong fighter physically, I was a mage.  
  
Born of the magic, waiting to return to the powers that had formed me from the earth.  
  
My childhood was a strange blur. In one half of my dreams I am laughing and enjoying childhood with Elmyra, going to school and being neither popular nor truly lonely. I had a few close friends and they were always more than willing to spend time in the playground with me, just beyond sector seven. I was happy.  
  
In the other dreams, I am strapped to strange cold tables, I am jabbed and stabbed and punctured by needles and knives, waiting for my blood to drip and leave me and I am always crying in pain. I am subjected to mako poisoning and horrific experiments, and I try to forget those dreams of agony for they torment not only my nights, but sometimes my days.  
  
Growning up, I learnt of what I was despite my outward denials and eventually I laid to rest my worries. Elmyra, my foster mother, grew older and less able to help pay the bills so after I managed to finish school I took up a regular job rather than go onto further education, which would have refined my botany skills as well as my own talent for magic.  
  
I became a flower girl.  
  
My magic was born from the world about me, so I found it easy to manipulate energy and life, bringing about sweet and dear creations of flowers in the ruins of a church. I don't know why they grew much stronger there, perhaps the church was a ruin from a time when the cetra ways were still being practised, and as such the grounds were hallowed and more responsive to my own innate magical powers.  
  
Whatever the reason, it was enough for I managed to help us get by.  
  
One day, from the sky, fell a handsome young man and my life changed. I had purpose now, the pain I had been feeling turned quickly to a sense of belonging and without a doubt I knew this man was going to change my life.  
  
I followed him through Shinra and out into the world.  
  
I felt alone, but more at peace, for the voice of the Planet was less garbled and slowly instilling in me a sense of responsibility and duty. I was the Last Ancient. I had a duty to fulfill, and as time went on it became clearer to me.  
  
I had to protect my friends and family from the fiend and menace that was Sephiroth, a mistake of the Jenova blood.  
  
I went to war.. I lost my life.  
  
I spent a long time floating in the lifestream and thinking about life. I had already prayed for Holy and it's soft blue light tantalised me from where I hung motionless. Distantly I knew that sooner or later I would have to move in order to give my friends access to the great powers I had given my future up for.  
  
Cloud killed Sephiroth.. and unleashed Holy to stop Meteor.  
  
But it wasn't enough.  
  
I took action.  
  
Trapped inside pain and recrimination, I moved to save the lives of Tifa and Cloud, my best friend and my second love, of my friends and family. For the very planet.  
  
I would not let Sephiroth win.  
  
I drew up the energy of the world and threw it with myself against the Meteor, pushing it away and vacillitating the quickened Holy Judgement.. and as it passed over the world with incredible force, I remember the voices about me.  
  
~ Look.. Look at what we have done! We deserve a chance to...  
  
~ I have come so far and learnt so much, I am not ready to give up yet! I have been given a second cha...  
  
~ I still have my daughter to care for.. so many mistakes to corr...  
  
~ The planet chooses what is good or bad.. but we have stood for the planet..  
  
And mine, lifting my dissipating eyes towards the stars swirling about me..  
  
~ I have done it. I have set them all Free.. I found a way.. ~  
  
And now, in a strange twist of fate here I am again, going through the motions I have once walked over and now I know with all surety that I think I know a way to set them all free again. I can do what you asked Tifa.. I can save them.  
  
Forever.  
  
~*~  
  
*Still talking to yourself, Aeris?*  
  
She looked up from the floor of her prison, eyes reddened but nothing more. "It is better than talking to you."  
  
*Ansem has moved, You felt it?*  
  
"Yes."  
  
*Good.. and now, we move too, upwards. Closer to the end.*  
  
"And end," she mused aloud, "end it shall.."  
  
(( heh, I keep writing.. it's getting close to the big finale. Wanted to say another big thank you to anyone reading and reviewing, and anyone reading and not reviewing, well.. why not? Review me, tell me if you like it or hate it, if I should change stuff in my next one? blah blah.. usual.. actually, prefer to get the non hatey ones :) Thanks everyone: Bhryn xxx )) 


	17. 16: Power

Destroyed  
~  
~  
Chapter 16: Power  
~  
~  
"With great power.. comes great responsibility.."  
~ Stan Lee, Spiderman (don't shoot me ^_~ )  
~  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
What saves people?  
  
What brings people back from their very edges and construes to make then whole again?  
  
What facet of mundane life can be said to hold within it the answers to any one person and their life as a film reeled off before their eyes? I have no answers to anyone else's existance, only a faint gratifying reassurance that they live, they breathe, they congigate and interact with other people on a daily basis in order to validate their own existance.  
  
For some it is love that saves them, for some it is friendship. For some the truth brings them back, for some a lie.  
  
Does this mean that human nature is based wholly upon an individual, and therefore "humanity" in all it's glory cannot be said to be a race, just a passing affliction from being to being on a more physical level than anything emotional or spiritual?  
  
How can anyone promise to save another for such a horrendous outlook on life?  
  
How could I, in all honesty, stretch out my hand to another living being and say with whole hearted enthusiasm.. yes, I can save you.  
  
Yes, I know you.  
  
Yes, I can help you.  
  
I can't.   
  
I am not some saviour from god nor am I a world leading authority on religion, I am merely an embodiment of a sense of understanding which is poured like balming water onto a troubled soul which needs guidance only then and there.  
  
The only long term solution may be given and created by the willing soul itself and not by any external force, but that of the surroundings one puts oneself in?  
  
I am just a girl, set on a path she chose a long time ago.  
  
Whether it leads to my own destruction or not.. who knows..?  
  
It has done once.  
  
I am no longer scared of death, the transitionary state of conciousness from one level to another, nor am I frightened that I will never find my Promised Land again, for the joy it fostered inside me with but a few months is more than enough to see me through an eternity of shadows and banes to all existance. No matter where this path takes me, I will save my friends..  
  
I will.  
  
*~ but... what redeems a person? ~*  
  
A saving grace, do you mean?  
  
What saves a person, is themself. I have seen it so much and I have but been about for a small amount of time by the long yawning which is reckoned by the universe a whole being, a flow of time down the ages. I have seen people fight for what they truly believe in, what they think they can do and then acheive is astounding.  
  
I am constantly impressed by the ingenuity of individuals and their redeeming features.  
  
Love, friendship, truth, honesty, loyalty, compassion, grace, honour.   
  
Sometimes a soul cannot help the way it goes and when that happens it is called destiny, or so I like to believe.   
  
All people can be redeemed, if they so wish it. If they deny this then it is simply then denying themselves the chance to give themselves some betterment in their own lives, fogoing the chance to be above it all, to be new and saved from the dross their lives have piled upon them. Everyday I beg for redemption, I pray that I myself can do better, I strive for it.  
  
I live my life by my own words, I am no hypocrite.  
  
If so, what is my saving grace?  
  
Undying will, a soft nature, understanding?  
  
I was told once that I am a vessel of power, but with that power, I must hamper with understanding and responsiblity, lest my own abilities destroy me and the ones whom I love above all else. I will see my way through this.  
  
I will hope and cherish the thought that He can be redeemed.  
  
I will be the one to do it.  
  
*~But.. you think often of death..~*  
  
Yes..  
  
Yes.. I do, don't I?  
  
I don't know why I think of it so much but the thoughts which spiral down into my soul seem to be stuck there more and more. Thoughts of home and thoughts of that sword.. just slicing through me.  
  
Was I only returned to life to be broken again in the use of Planet, of all planets and futures? It is a huge task, and an amazing duty to be fostered upon once such as me.. and I don't know rightly, what I should do.  
  
*~ Why don't you try to save your own life? ~*  
  
Because I am not selfish, like Him.  
  
I don't give up other peoples lives for something I can do just as readily myself and with much better alacrity and understanding of the task which my hands then turn to. I would rather no one suffers but I, for I am the tool and the power, remember? It is not right, it is not fair upon others. They should not suffer the ignonimy of death.. I would do anything to see that they don't. Anything.  
  
Even give up my own life.  
  
*~ do not dwell on the past..~*  
  
I cannot help it.  
  
In my past there lies so much to which I would cling, my hearts and hopes and dreams.  
  
I haven't given up on them yet, I don't need to! If I stop hanging on then they'll all fade away like campfire smoke with the strongest gusts of early morning.  
  
I'll be left with ashes in my hands and a sick taste in my mouth, my stomach turning knots about itself in fury. In hate of myself. There in my past, they are alive.  
  
I know what you're saying..  
  
It's bad to look back so much now that I have a future.. but sometimes I need to balance it.  
  
Looking forward too much ended me dead in the water..  
  
Looking back now, in moderation, may help save those I care for.  
  
*~ Leon? ~*  
  
...I...  
  
*~ Leon? ~*  
  
....  
  
*~ Leon? ~*  
  
E..Especially Leon.  
  
I..  
  
I Lo..  
  
I love him.  
  
*~ Was that so hard to say? ~*  
  
Yes! And no..  
  
Yes because I had promised myself to Cloud so long ago.. and No, because it is simply the truth.  
  
I am scared of what Cloud would think. He must be dead by now... twisted and thrown away by the Heartless.. and if so then what am I doing, agonising over something that shouldn't be painful at all!  
  
Why?!  
  
I can't answer this right now, I don't need time, I just need to see them both perhaps, before the end..  
  
And I will know.  
  
*~ What of Sephiroth? ~*  
  
You know I despise him. Everything he stands for, everything he has done to me and my friends, my family, my world..  
  
He Destroys everything!  
  
He is the Destruction reborn, evil and haunting and lagging on each of my footsteps.. he is like a shadow that clings to my light.  
  
I promised to sink him into the lifestream and away from life so he could not harm it, but he returns like a plague with my every step.  
  
Maybe that is why I need to remain dead.  
  
So he cannot return and beat at the fragile doors of life.  
  
I will do.. much to see him saved, if it were possible.. but in the end, I know what must happen.  
  
*~ You are the Power of Light.. can you tame it? ~*  
  
I don't know.  
  
I can only try, right?  
  
I used to be powerful.. beyond powerful!  
  
I had access to magic that only the lowliest of mages could dream of, but that was when I was in close contact with the very earth of the planet, indeed, any planet. Now, so far away and locked up inside my body, I am not sure.  
  
I would guess that.. I can only try.  
  
Trying is what I do best after all.  
  
*~ Find a way...~*  
  
I will.  
  
For I am the power, remember.. and I will never give up.  
  
Never...  
  
(( sorry it's short.. onto the fun bits :D wootage! )) 


	18. 17: You Can Never Win

Destroyed  
~  
~  
Chapter 17: You Can Never Win  
~  
~  
"To recognize what is beyond your ability to change, and to be content with this as your destiny - that is truly a sign of virtue~:"  
Chuang Tzu  
~  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
The time is here.  
  
The time is now.  
  
Open up..  
  
Open up..  
  
Come, to me.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"I'm ready," she whispered to the shadows.  
  
Self questioning had brought about her own sense of self, her vague memories of responsibility in a dim past. She remembered the needs and desires of others and other people to which she had wholeheartedly submitted her will and her life. This was no different, because even were there not a resolution to the problem then she would die and take him with her.  
  
The shadows and shades of yesterday moved and whispered about her, eyes upon her.  
  
Stuck in limbo and cornered by ghosts of people she once knew and loved, people from her own planet and from others. She almost ached with the feeling that somewhere in those shadows her old friends were watching her and waiting for her to recognise them, to reach out unto them and drag them willingly into life. She had no such ability.  
  
After so long trapped in here with only her basest of normal senses, her own ultra-senses had begun to return. Slowly at first they made her more aware of the shadows and spaces, but as time went on she began to perceive once more aura's and power, magic and flows of life. It was all returning again with desirable force and gravity.  
  
Soon, she guessed, she would be back at the height of her powers when she had left the world, the Planet. But something else that sparkled inside her like a tiny, unnoticed diamond.. it told her that her powers were growing even beyond that. Soon she would outstrip some of the greatest magical practicioners.. soon, sooner than expected she knew her magic would be able to easily overpower Sephiroth.  
  
She thought he knew it too.  
  
His bundle of sensations in the back of her mind was screaming towards anxiety and pushing her friends on the outside, in the real world, towards somewhere.. why?  
  
It was up, she knew there was some kind of vertical slant to this madness. A tower perhaps.  
  
"I remember a tower when I awoke," she murmured, frowning.  
  
Hollow Bastion was a castle old and cruel with it's own lingering personality. It was built of deep catacombs and strange dungeons filled with traps and shadows, and tall, arching spires that flew off into mid air as it rested above a world of water. Deep in the sandstone blocks and past the grit and grime, she could feel the palpable magic when she had first stepped into the Castle.  
  
He.. He had been with her since her first insane impulse to return here.  
  
Something about that tower, she knew, was the key to the mystery and sooner or later it would all fall into place.   
  
Aeris just hoped that it wouldn't be too late by then to put into action counter-measures.  
  
The whispering of the shadows grew to a quickened crescendo, and blinking slightly, the slender figure on her knees in the faint glow of green light looked behind her at the shadows of yesterday.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Ansem," came one soft voice.  
  
"He is close to the door," wailed another.  
  
Aeris let her mouth drop open slightly, then clenching her slim hands into the skirt material she got to her feet. Feeling awkward in her heavy duty boots, hair a lank mess about her weary face.. she still managed some semblance of dignity.  
  
"How close?"  
  
"An hour in time, a step or two dimension wise.."  
  
"The Keyblade master is already there."  
  
"Darkness or light.. what do we do?!"  
  
The ancient waved her hands at the ghosts who seemed riled up into formless panic, "hey, calm down.. slow down."  
  
They listened and slowed their frantic shuffles and wails, featureless eyes turning towards her. She couldnt see their faces but she guessed they were all paying her attention now and being quiet, so she smiled as re-assuringly as she possibly could. In here she was their tenuous connection to the living, to the past as well as the future.  
  
"Don't worry.. Sora will do what is right. We just have to remain calm. And we all should have a small chat.. I have a plan about Sephiroth and I'll need your help.."  
  
A low murmur in the memories and then they shuffled closer to listen, and as Aeris explained she felt again the strange burning sensation in her chest. Ignoring it, however, she delved deeper into shadows, for the sake of the light...  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
It was so dark and peaceful.  
  
He could almost imagine stars, whirling over and under him.  
  
~ I wish Kairi and Riku could see this.. ~  
  
The thought brought tears to his eyes as he floated there with memories of home crowding in his head, memories of sun kissed sands and beloved melodies floating down from the high tree top base which they had made together so many, many years ago.  
  
He remembered the soft smile on the young Kairi's face when she had first met Riku and he, her long sarong and her bright sapphire eyes that sparkled with the same laughter he loved to hear from her.  
  
Never let me see her upset, never let me see her cry.. he had said to himself. Just ten.  
  
He remembered the hollow under the great tree where a strange wooden panel had been and he and Riku had drew faces into the rock there with chalk stones, where Kairi and he had drawn one another.   
  
He loved those faces and pictures and sometimes they would come to their island really early and pretend that they were pirates or great adventurers and on the rock they would record their battles and great legends for future generations..  
  
He remembered with sorrow Riku's face when his grandmother had died and how the older boy had cried. Just twelve.  
  
So many had died for so much they couldn't control, so much pain and anguish had been suffered by those left behind. Was he left behind? Would this blade be enough to fix the world.. all worlds. He wanted his home back.  
  
He wanted something impossible and out of reach to him.  
  
But he kept trying, he always kept trying.  
  
"Time.."  
  
He looked down from the swirling blackness and his body righted itself.  
  
Floating across from him were Donald and Goofy and some distance off was Ansem in the stolen form, his hair was platinum white, skin the colour of hazelnuts and his eyes were wide and amber, lidded with madness and desperation. Sora felt tired, more tired than he ever had. He had fought past worlds and strange monsters, through heartless and past the dangers of not knowing himself well enough. He had done all of it for his friends and for a future for Kairi. A safe place where everyone could belong..  
  
"Ansem," he sighed softly.  
  
Behind him Donald lifted his weapon and Goofy half hid behind his shield. Watching, they saw Ansem stretch his hand out towards a door of white.  
  
It was beautifully carved, almost gothically so in appearance, with angels and demons all riveted on the outside. Veined with silver and sparkling, the doors cracked open and dark smoke began to effuse into the raven backdrop, seething and hissing as it touched new air.  
  
"It is futile," spat Ansem, "The keyblade alone cannot seal the door to the darkness."  
  
Sora frowned and looked down, thinking about it all. Why would everyone be fighting so hard for the shadows? If the true darkness came from the hearts of men and monsters, then why would it be contained in a door?  
  
~ The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes.. ~  
  
Darkside.. that huge, tentaclled monster.. here..  
  
It fell slowly into place like a jigsaw and he smiled, watching Ansem as he stretched forth a hand, "Kingdom Hearts, fill me with the power of darkness.. Supreme Darkness!"  
  
As his companions squawked in terror, he instead stayed calm, and lifted his boyish tenor in the night.  
  
"You're wrong. I know now, without a doubt, that Kingdom Hearts... is Light!"  
  
It was like opening a dam, and letting all the pressurised water flood out of the doors. It opened and seethed and spat it's fairy lights all over the horrified face of Ansem who was almost crying with despair.. he shook his head and tried denying it.  
  
The light grew so strong that Sora was forced to lift a hand and shade his eyes, enough to see the madman was disintigrating..  
  
"Lights," he gasped.."but...why...."  
  
And then, he was gone.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
That was the change and with a gasp of horror Aeris too looked up as light flooded the darkness inside limbo.  
  
It pervaded and clung to her, enervating her limbs and bringing her higher. It was as if someone had injected her directly with caffiene or some kind of energising drug, like the spell Haste. She was suddenly very.. very aware of the world and every living voice raised in praise.. except hers.  
  
"NO!"  
  
She knew now.. she knew.  
  
The worlds would be remade, and with it their own world. With the planet came the wound.. came the scarring that helped connect all worlds to Hollow Bastion, all magical. Each had their own scar to give access.. the Knowlespole..  
  
With the recreation came the immense powers of life and living.  
  
That's was Sephiroth wanted, he wanted to be reborn.. not just as living, but to suck in all those powers.. and become a God.  
  
And.. by helping Sora.. she had inadvertantly helped him.  
  
Now, now she knew.  
  
Whispering to herself as her knees gave out, the light got stronger and the sensations of triumph suddenly overwhelmed her senses...  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"Take care of her.."  
  
Tears ran down his cheeks as the white door shut, with a dreadful clang.   
  
Riku..  
  
Swallowing hard, he looked up and over the snowy fields of what was most likely ashes.. and dugs his feet into it as his back leant on the door. Riku had just condemned himself to a life of terrible pain and there was nothing Sora could do, not one reasonable thing as a Keyblade wielder..  
  
Donald and Goofy remained silent next to him, when the next thing caught his sharp eyes.  
  
At the edge of reality, edges of the ashy fields, he saw a slim figure in a white croptop and a short purple skirt. She held a hand to her chest and looked about herself in worry, her dark red hair flashing in the sun of a new world being born. He didn't care anymore, and with a push from the door and a frown marring his brow he ran over to her.  
  
Donald made to follow, but Goofy put a hand on his shoulder and with sadness in those big black eyes, just shook his head.  
  
"Kairi!"  
  
The girl looked up at his shout.  
  
For the hundreth time, he felt his heart leap. Was it love? Was it soul bound? Either way, whenever he looked into those eyes he found himself entranced and he skidded to a slow stop.  
  
"Sora," the princess called back, reaching out to his hand.  
  
He moved his own, taking her cold fingers in his and revelling in the touch of her skin on his naked fingers. Kairi.  
  
~ I did it. Everything is fine.. but Riku is gone. I'll keep looking for him, no matter when or where.. just wait for me.. ~  
  
The world was forming as sand and foam under her feet, the darkness whirling.. It started to shake and desperately she tightened her hold on him, eyes staring pleadingly into his.  
  
~I can't, Kairi.. I can't.. ~  
  
He held on though, the pain in his heart so sharp.  
  
"Kairi," he said past the lump in his throat, "remember what I said to you. I'm always with you too, I'll come back to you. I promise."  
  
She gritted her teeth as tears poured down cheeks he had never wanted to see wet with such, and with one last squeeze she cried out, "I know you will!"  
  
The world exploded away from the ledge on which he stood, expanding backwards and looking up she stared at him. He stared back, hand stretched down to the girl of his dreams.. and then he fell away as the darkness swallowed him. Darkness all pinpointed and moving with such delicate grace, all about him and rousing his inner feelings. Success, joy, pain and sorrow.. but now it would all be alright. He had done his job..  
  
Stars, he mused idly.. and smiled..  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"I have to get up," Aeris said, looking up at Yuffie and Leon. "The worlds are returning.. I will go now."  
  
Leon arched a brow, helping her up. "Aeris, we'll go with you."  
  
As Yuffie and even Cid, stood by the door with a strange cube in his hands, nodded she shook her head. The bridge and landway over towards the Magical world she knew best, with the wound and energy..  
  
The time was so close.  
  
"Alone."  
  
"You have to be joking.."  
  
Lifting her hands, she tilted back her head. From nowhere came the astounding blur of sharp icy shards, frosting her skin and arms. Her fingers became coated in frost, and then with a whisper released the spell soundlessly.  
  
Leon gasped moments before the fireball crashed into his chest with disgusting force and threw him bodily down the stairs. The successive ones hit Yuffie square in the knees and effectively knocked her out as her head hit the floor with a small crack. The third took Cid by surprise, and exploded in his face.. as the smoke cleared he fell slowly forward onto the floor and didn't move.  
  
Studying the quick carnage, Sephiroth in Aeris' body.. he smiled and then turned, stepping onto the land bridge across to Aeris' world and his.. and began walking towards destiny..  
  
(( "heating" things up, heh.. bad pun of the day. This Author recommends everyone goes see X2, or else ^_~ )) 


	19. 18: Hidden

Destroyed  
~  
~  
Chapter 18: Hidden  
~  
~  
"I hope I'm old, before I die..  
I hope I live, to relive, the days gone by.."  
~ Robbie Williams  
~  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
He woke slowly and not without a certain amount of pain in his chest.  
  
It ached and stung, and the acrid scent of fire was in the air. It tingled like magic and wincing Leon moved his fingers over the sickly sweet smelling flesh and the tear through his clothing. It smouldered and reeked, but lifting his head up he could only see steps leading up and behind him, steps leading down into darkness.  
  
A little way behind him and resting at a strange angle to the stonework was jammed his gunblade, the edge driven deeply into the step and wall.  
  
Coughing in earnest, Leon got onto his knees and sat back, letting his legs and calves take his weight as his fingers poked the wound in his chest and he tried piecing together just what had happened to him and why he was no spread eagled on the floor with little recollection.  
  
Aeris had attacked them.  
  
Aeris had thrown a fireball, one of her more easily wielded spells.  
  
Afraid and in awe as he was of magic, even from the time before he knew about the Sorceress' and SeeD's ultimate means to an end.. before then.. magic.. Primal and unleashed by the iron will of a small, delicate girl. If she had indeed attacked him and managed to evade Yuffie and Cid then she was most likely running down into her world by now, looking for whatever drew her.  
  
For a moment his sulky nature balked after running behind her, but then after that elapse his kind and caring love for the willful and strange flower girl kicked in and he moved over slowly to pick up his gunblade.  
  
Cid. Yuffie.  
  
What had happened to them?  
  
As his leather gloved hand grasped the hilt of the gunblade, he began levering himself up onto it and then brushed his dark hair from his smoked blue eyes. His left knee felt a little weak and apart from obvious bruises, cuts and the large burn, he felt no worse for wear.  
  
Much more dangerous spells, after all, had been thrown at him during the second Sorceress' war, during the time when he and Rinoa, Zell, Irvine, Selphie and Quistis had stood up against the night and said in one loud voice, "no." Leon... Squall was a survivor, and whatever it meant he had to do to survive he would, and now he would also do whatever it took to bring Aeris back to reason and follow her.  
  
Limping gently, he made his way up the stairs, feeling the flickering eyes of the wall torches and the ashes they scattered asunder over the room. Treading lightly past this, he made it up towards the large room where Aeris had remembered seeing, where the bridge between worlds existed.  
  
The door swung slowly from it's hinges..  
  
Covering his mouth to shield against the sickly smell he looked down in complete horror at the still body by his foot.  
  
It's blond hair and strange shirt was almost unrecognisable from the back and as Leon turned it over with a hesitant toe the face revolved round. It was disgusting, a sickening mass of ruined flesh that still smoked. Bloodied cuts enamoured the face and ran in dark trails of burnt blood from the mouth, nose and eyes. Where the nose had once been was a charred lump of bone. The eyes had boiled in their sockets and clear liquid was still seeping from one. The throat looked almost as if the force of the spell had ripped his throat out, and swallowing Leon took a single step away from the corpse that had once been Cid Highwind.  
  
Why?  
  
Aeris wasn't like this, she was gentle and sweet and now she was on some kind of lunatic rampage.  
  
A low cry made his head turn and shuffling past the corpse, he moved to the other body in the room.  
  
It was Yuffie, curled over and holding her right leg, her hands trembled as they seemed to strain to keep bone and muscle together, her face all screwed up in pain. Shadows of raven fell over her cheekbones, and the usually happily smiling mouth was contorted in agony.  
  
"Ow..ow.." she gasped between sobs, the tears cutting tracks in the soot.  
  
"Hey, Yuffie.. it's me. Relax."  
  
"Why did she.. ow ow.. Leon it hurts!"  
  
Murmuring that he knew, he forced Yuffie to let go of her right leg and looked down on the broken shard of her shin bone that was thrust out through the skin, blood and torn muscle surrounding the terrible lesion. He wasn't what one would called skilled in the use of magic, but he did remember early field medical lessons.  
  
Grapsing at the edges of his white vest, he tore off three strips of material, and then ignoring as best he could the yowls of pain from the poor ninja, he bound up the leg against one of the slats of the door.  
  
"Cid?" she cried, holding onto her leg the instant his hands left.  
  
Of course, the two had known one another a long time. "I'm sorry," was all he could say.  
  
The look of swift pain welling up in the girls violet eyes, even in the half light of the room was more than he could bear. Looking away, Leon ruffled a hand through his hair and pretended he couldn't hear the broken pain in Yuffie's small whisperings.  
  
"Why, Leon... why?"  
  
"I don't know."  
  
The silence was broken between them as it grew by another voice.  
  
"I do."  
  
He skittered a look up and over his shoulder towards the doorway. A man as if made from molten shadow stood there, a long crimson cloak about his squared shoulders, a torn set of purple pants tucked into army issue leather boots, bound with belt straps to mid calf. His shirt under was also dark in colour, a dark purple too and ribbed like old style polo vests. The cowl of the hood was torn and wrapped over the lower half of the shadowy face, the hand that was half dug into the wooden doorframe was metal. The right hand was not. Standing above all this, was a shock of pale blonde hair.  
  
His cold blue eyes emerged from the light, over a straight nose and a cool expression. Then slowly as his toe hit the edge of Cid Highwind's body, he looked down and the pain mirrored from Yuffie's eyes emerged if briefly, only to be swallowed up again by determination or perhaps anger.  
  
"Cid.." he murmured, then looked across at the ninja. "It's good to see you again, little thief."  
  
"Cloud!" she cried out, in ragged, grief stricken tones.  
  
Again, Leon knew what it was like to have his world crash down about him..  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
~ Did you ever dream of this power or place? ~  
  
Her body was moving, she was vaguely aware, but horror superceded all else.  
  
She had harmed the very ones she loved, the very ones she was trying to save.  
  
Tears ran unchecked down her cheeks and in some small fashion she welcomed this end to ends, this chance to be free.. it would all end.  
  
~ You don't have to be afraid any more, Aeris. ~  
  
Her teeth gritted, as the cold snows howled endlessly about her. She was walking up from the entrance to Hollow Bastion which had been found in the Ancient's City, towards the Knowlespole. The damage of the world had run deep, so deep that no one had even really seen where the scars of the wounding had gone.  
  
It ran under the crust and along the planet, causing wells of Mako energy, or rather the Lifestream. It emerged as something dangerous to anything non Cetra. Here she was, in the freezing light of dim day, her footprints swallowed up behind her by the screaming cold.  
  
Why couldn't she wake up?  
  
She wasn't afraid anymore...  
  
~ Good.. good.. ~  
  
She had nothing left to lose now, after all.  
  
So saying, she formulated the only plan she could, and prayed whole heartedly that the Planet forgave her.. someone had to.  
  
Hidden in the winds, she trudged onwards.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Cloud nodded, as he held Yuffie in his arms.  
  
The girl's leg was too damaged for her to walk no matter what the case and Cloud too, like Leon, was less versed in magic than most and the ninja's mind was too clouded with pain for her to even muster the will to create magic. The materia pouch hung useless for the time being at her side.  
  
As Yuffie clung to him, walking down the bridge between worlds, to his homeworld, the ex-Soldier couldn't help but marvel at events. Yuffie and Leon alive and Aeris, just missed by him. But the dark news they told him had only affirmed his suspicions.  
  
Seph was controlling Aeris.  
  
It was like working against a madman with only one thing on his mind for all eternity, to become a God by infusing with the lifeforce of the planet itself. In essence it made Sephiroth no better than the Heartless himself. It lowered him to their level. Rather then be the one to suggest it however, he had kept his peace and travelled after him like a shade ever lurking after light.  
  
This time he had to put the madman to rest.  
  
He had to end it all.  
  
Leon walked in stony silence beside him, leather gloved hands tucked into baggy jean pockets. His denim coat was high waisted and trimmed in red with silvery stitching. Under it he wore a torn white shirt, spattered with burnholes and the blood of his own wound which he didn't speak about. But the man had a pensive expression, as if waiting for the world to shatter.  
  
Cloud had a very good idea what was going on.  
  
~ She doesn't know the spells she makes just by breathing. ~  
  
Aeris, of course. The slender girl with her charismatic smile and effervescent nature was wild and gentle at the same time and the confusing mixture of seduction and sweetness, was enough to reel a man in, or send him crazy. What made it worse was the fact she was always blithely unaware of what she did to men.  
  
~She was always much more involved in the Planet. In what she could do for our future.. ~  
  
His blue eyes slid to Leon's grim mask.  
  
~ But like him, I only wanted one future.. With her. ~  
  
He sighed, looking past those he walked with and his mind settling into an unnerving state of calm. Lights and phantasms passed him by and for a moment, he found himself thinking of the past.. of where it had all gone wrong..  
  
~*~  
  
There was only the faintest of whispers at first, teasing over his numb senses and the daring of the dark into which he had spiralled hours previously. There was a strange deadening of limbs, as the whispering continued, soft and sweet across his flash burnt brain.  
  
"Cloud, can you hear me?"  
  
He turned over in pain, there was definitely a bed under him for a moment but then even that faded as he hung weightless in the air of his own dreamscape and awaited his words and her words. All that existed was here and now.  
  
"Yeah.. I can hear you, sorry for what happened."  
  
"Don't worry about it.."  
  
He opened his eyes, and took in a slow breath. The world was beautiful.  
  
He was stood in a glade of trees that offered shade and canopy overhead in a twisting of limbs and leaves, their bodies bent and smiling down in gemlike effervesence. Leaves like shining slivers of sapphire let in rays of a pale sun, the chill of some wind that brought with it only freshness and magic, tingling down his senses. The ground was soft packed dirt with grass growing everywhere and somewhere overhead he could swear he heard spirits chittering happily.  
  
"I can't help it.." he replied miserably.  
  
The temple. The Materia. The wounding and the beating.  
  
All his fault, all his own damned fault.  
  
"Then, why don't you really worry about it?" she appeared.  
  
Unbroken and unbruised, her form straight but slender in the rise and fall of the dappled sunshine and now more than ever he felt irrevocably drawn to her, to her spirit. Something would always connect him to her, and unwittingly he reached out to her, even as she turned her face towards him and smiled.   
  
That sweet smile, surrounded by the falls of golden brown hair and the light dancing in her bright green eyes. So wild and fey and not meant for this world, this life and violence. "And let me take care of you, so you don't have a breakdown.. okay?"  
  
He put a hand on his hip, unsurprised when she doubled back and vanished behind another tree, less surprised that here he wore his usual clothes. His self made raiment against the world and memories he would rather forget. His bright blue eyes took in the wood and then with curiosity leaking through his voice, he said, "what is this place?"  
  
She was there again, stepping out infront of him like a ghost with her thoughtful expression on her face, as her feet settled soundlessly on the floor. "This forests leads to the City of the Ancients, and is called the Sleeping Forest. It's only a matter of time until Sephiroth uses Meteor.. that's why I'm going to protect it, only a survivor of the Cetra, like me, can do it."   
  
Her expression turned beautiful and melancholy. He had a thousand questions. Protect what? Why you? Was she leaving?  
  
"This secret is up there, or at least it should be. It feels like I'm being led, drawn by something.." she took one last look at him and a whole world of compassion was in them.  
  
Never had the urge to reach out and hold her there been this strong before..  
  
Never.  
  
He lifted his hand as she lifted hers, and waved with a sweet and upbeat smile.   
  
"Then, I'll be going now. I'll come back, when this is all over.."  
  
She turned and left, running down towards destiny and cruel fate that would reave her from him eventually, and with tears on his face he reached out in desperation, "Aeris!!!"  
  
~*~  
  
"...Aeris," he said under his breath, and look past shards of blond hair and down towards the world.  
  
Perhaps this time it would all be different, he would make it different no matter what she wanted or thought was going to happen. Even if he was broken and too damaged for her now.. she would have Leon and Yuffie and a world to call her own.. a new life.  
  
A new start.  
  
That was what she needed, not a haunting reminder of her bloody past..  
  
Nodding and ignoring the odd looks he got from Leon and Yuffie, he stopped by the end of the pathway and looked out over the last city he had imagined he would ever come to.  
  
Spreading an arm with no amount of bitterness hidden in his voice, he said in soft undertones, "Welcome, to the City of the Ancients.."  
  
Echoing, his voice ran about the city and haunted where Aeris had stepped, like cruel and hunting magic.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
A day passed and relentlessly they tracked him/her.  
  
But he had a plan, ignoring the wails of fury from inside, the unfocused anger and magic.  
  
Deep inside the Labyrinth of fallen rooms, corridors and strange temples to dark powers that made up the epi-centre of the wound of the planet, he waited and waited. His laughter was soft, for so close now was his goal was in sight, in touching distance..  
  
HE would be a god.. and finally everything would be as Mother promised.  
  
But deep inside, he was careless.. and she kept beating..  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"How much further?" asked the weary girl, pushing her lank hair behind an ear and then adjusting the strip of material that lanced over her forehead and kept some of her unruly mop from falling in her eyes. Her already shoddy clothes were ripped in several places from the hazardous climb into the Knowlespole centre, where it had all caved in due to tremors and the announcment of Holy rushing up from the Planet's core.  
  
Leon and Cloud were in no better state.  
  
Cloud's trousers were badly torn, one leg almost non existant and showing scars through it, his cloak clawed and ripped half to shreds. His hair was just about managing it's spiky behaviour but it might have been due to the fact that Cloud kept running a hand over it, old pride helping maintain it. The bandages over the buster sword were now blood soaked and only just clinging to the sharp blade.  
  
Leon had abandoned his undershirt a while back in favour of bandages in the Snow Village, where Yuffie had also been cured by a local materia dealer and his natural talent with the magic. Back on track, Leon had later stumbled unawares over the unfamiliar terrain and landed headlong into a snowdrift and a hidden rock which has gashed his eyebrow and left him with a wound that may eventually scar him.  
  
He had grumbled about more scars, in addition to his facial one, as they had climbed in.  
  
The centre of the Knowlespole was much different to what Cloud remembered.  
  
When he and his friends had come through here last, it had been a winding cave of pockmarked holes and strange signs, letters written in Cetra and other dead tongues as mankind had evolved. Strange symbols and drawings were the epitome of the landscape and half ruined altars to the Cetra powers.   
  
He remembered the magic.  
  
He remembered the voices.  
  
As his eyes focused off into the distance, Leon began walking about the thin ledge carefully and looking down and under it.  
  
They were lodged on the thin ledge where he had last been inside the wound, where he and Tifa had checked one another for wounds and waved across to his friends. Unbidden, those sharp feelings rose in his throat. Would he never be free of it?  
  
His clarity of recall painted them in, Cid trying to start the ship and acrid odour of petrol and strange fluids on the air, the tang of blood tasted in his torn mouth as he watched in desperation, lifting his cloak to hide the wounds thereabouts. The vision of Nanaki standing true and proud at Cosmo Canyon, giving Cloud and his friends time to get away from the world, his red fur gleaming like an abandoned sunset. The violent mysteries of Vincent and how he had roared in rage and set his inner demons loose, the blood and violence but through it all they had kept moving to the City and the gateway.  
  
To where Aeris would be.  
  
In the end, so many had died, so many innocents and because of one man's insane addiction to power.  
  
"Hey, there's a hole here."  
  
Lifting his head at the voice, Cloud shifted his eyes across to where Leon was knelt over the opening, his leather covered hands gripping the boulder that had slid over it, "Lend me a hand," he grunted.  
  
Yuffie stepped hesitantly forward but Cloud shook his head and instead let her hold his sword. She took it with delicate and careful hands, wincing at the blood. But the ex-soldier pretended not to notice and moved towards the boulder, and pressed his fingers round the smoothed edges. In concert with the underestimated strength of the taller man, Leon, the two slowly shifted the boulder, and with momentum it rolled aside easily to show a strange passage cut into the rockface.  
  
It looked almost entirely natural with strange luminescence coming from the walls, and a soft springy dirt packed underfoot. For a second it almost looked like something Cloud recognised, then shaking his head he reclaimed his sword from Yuffie who slipped past the two men as they stared.  
  
"So, Aeris is down there?" she chirped.  
  
"Possibly," said Leon, in dark tones.  
  
"But there's a chance, right?"  
  
Leon just looked down at the floor and the glowing dirt. Yuffie turned her beseeching violet eyes onto Cloud and he forced himself to stare back, not at the familiar writings on the walls or the glow of fake light from somewhere inside.  
  
"There's always a chance Yuffie."  
  
"That..That's all we need then!"  
  
"But Yuffie.." he lifted his hand and watched her fall silent. Pleased secretly with how much the girl had grown up over the past years they had been gone, how much more mature she was and growing into the woman her youthful smile had promised, he continued. "That is not just Aeris down there. Sephiroth's inside her, making her do things she can't stop. The girl we know and love is buried somewhere deep inside, hidden inside all the dross that he forces on her body."  
  
"But-!"  
  
"What I'm saying is we should be careful."  
  
Yuffie scowled and looked across at Leon who was slowly wandering into the tunnels. Then clenching her fists, one into her shorts and the other about the handle of her shuriken, she too moved deeper into the pits of the world. With little choice, Cloud followed.  
  
Every step echoed.  
  
Every breath hung pensive on the air.  
  
It was like a dream, the hard mercenary noted, as he waded deeper into the shadows. They whispered about his legs and laughed in his ear almost mockingly. ~ Come home? ~ they seemed to jeer, but with a brush of his metallic hand, he ignored them. So what if he had compacted with dark powers? He was doing what was right now, and that was about all that mattered, after all.  
  
The tunnel went on for a good half an hour, boring deeper and further down into the earth until eventually it yawned open with a blaze of green brilliance and strange heat. Shielding his eyes with one hand, he could make out the silhouette of a figure against the flames, hands held to a slim chest from sideways on.  
  
"Aeris!" Yuffie yelled, and pushing heedlessly past and somehow too slippery for Leon's quick-thinking grab, she wormed her way across to the figure and grasped one arm in her hand.  
  
The detonation shattered the fragile silence, and the roar of the lifestream echoed.  
  
The ninja screamed and arched, her body blown backwards off it's feet and skidding along the floor until her head hit with a dull clunk off the mis-shappen walls of the centre of the world.  
  
Leon put his hand on his gunblade and moved over to check if Yuffie was alright, a quick handsign confirming the girl was only unconcious.  
  
Cloud stared deeply into the green fire, and as the shadow turned all her could see was a shower of pink.. and the bedazzling, sweet smile..  
  
~*~  
  
"What if... this is all we have left?"  
  
He looked across at her with puzzled blue eyes, and she almost wanted to laugh. How sweet and innocent he seemed at times, with his puppy dog expression and little boy smile. The dappled sun of the trees under which they walked scattered strange highlights in his golden hair, making their way slowly through the forests and towards Junon.  
  
"Why would this be all we have left?"  
  
"I don't know. I'm afraid of waking up and finding this all isn't real," she said, with conviction behind her words.  
  
"I'm real," Cloud replied stubbornly.  
  
"How can you be so sure?"  
  
The same confused expression but now perhaps a glimmer of understanding.  
  
"I can't be.."  
  
"One day I will be gone, Cloud. And on that day, you'll have to make a very important decision. What comes after I leave is all upto you.. do you stand up and fight in the only way you know how.. or do you run away?"  
  
"Go away...?"  
  
She laughed, and gave him a tiny push with a hand, bringing a small smile to the dour man's face, and a little more light into his life.  
  
~*~  
  
...and she cried on the inside, hidden away from the battle and reality... 


	20. 19: In The End

Destroyed  
~  
Chapter 19: In The End  
(short chapter alert!)  
~  
~  
"Turn it inside out so I can see,  
The part of you that's drifting over me..  
When I wake you're not there,  
When I sleep you're everywhere.."  
Michelle Branch  
~  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
Leon straightened from the girl who breathed evenly in and out and looked across at the shadowy man.  
  
Cloud, come running back in at the nick of time.. who's nick though?  
  
The man was locked in some kind of strange state, staring at the figure of Aeris who stood with her back to the brilliant green blaze, her eyes tilted upwards and half shut in some kind of ecstacy. The roar of the flames and the silence that slowly grew inside him wanted to explode. He wanted to shout or scream or anything.  
  
~ Aeris! Can't you see the damage you're doing?! Can't you see the pain, god damn you..~  
  
His hand tightened over the gunblade handle, with the faint creak of leather. The bandages about his chest seemed an affront and the pain of his pent up anger was actually hurting him so much he was gritting his teeth.  
  
He wondered if he could go over there and shake some sense into her.  
  
~ You've killed Cid! You've wounded Yuffie twice! Wake up, take control! ~  
  
But as the girl lowered her eyes, glowing and glittering he knew that his Aeris wasn't in there, wasn't in control and the smile painted over pastel pink lips wasn't hers but something wholly sinister and evil.  
  
The very image of someone he loved, so sweet and pure was chilling him to the bone.. coloured evil in the glare of life.  
  
"Sephiroth," Cloud began in his shaking voice, and Leon made slow steps over to where the man in the cloak was stood, never once taking his hand off the gunblade and never once looking away from Aeris.. from Sephiroth. "It's nice to speak again.."  
  
Aeris barked a laugh and the voice emerging from deep within her voicebox was twisted and chordal, with disgusting jarring notes instead of a beautiful symphony he had grown used to.  
  
"Nice, Strife? Maybe for you, basking in my presence again."  
  
"Yeah, breasts were always a good look for you," the blond man bravely taunted and the effect was visible, a faint twitching of the muscles about the mouth and a strange and almost feral look entering Aeris' eyes.. but it was quickly swallowed up.  
  
"Don't be jealous if I happen to be *inside* the one you wanted, Strife. You too Leonheart.." the smile became wicked and Leon noted Cloud didn't even flicker an eyelid at that statement.  
  
~ Good GOD the man is like ice. Sephiroth just admitted.. that I.. wanted his.. love.. ~  
  
Still choking on it, he didn't manage to miss the next words.  
  
"Explanations would be good right about now Seph.. we can't harm you and you know it. Why Aeris? Why all this?"  
  
Slim hands came down from the necklace and smoothed themselves down Aeris' chest, flattening the material over her slim breasts and then down over the lower and much more gentle curves of her slim hips, moulding the pink material to her legs and groinal area with almost arousing accuracy. "Why not.."  
  
Clearing his throat slightly, Cloud moved a step closer in an attempt to look threatening. "Sephiroth!"  
  
"Tut tut, tut.. anger management would do you some good, puppet.." But the hands stopped and Aeris' expression took on that of a teacher talking to a pupil, a particularly dense pupil. "Here is where the world was wounded, and scarred. Here is where the great powers of Jenova scored deep down into the planets core and opened up the rift of creation. On his world," a small finger pointed at Leon, much to the swordsman's surprise, "it was much the same with the Lunar Cry, the creatures falling down and creating chaos, havoc and eventually destruction. It opened the way for the timestream. The two streams met across time and space and created this, a rift where shadows came and were born."  
  
"Shadows...?"  
  
"Heartless."  
  
Leon froze, almost guiltily. The heartless. Born from deep within planets and set free to eat the world, were born because of two events that had struck in tandem on two worlds of pure magic, of legends and strange powers.. It was all, their fault? As his guilt spread over him life a fire, his expression darkened quickly.  
  
A hand of metal was placed coolly over his, and lifting his own smoky blue eyes he met the quizzical blue eyes of Cloud.  
  
"No, it's alright."  
  
"But, we..."  
  
"We couldn't have helped it. It was an accident, alright? A long time ago, who would have known the repurcussions.."  
  
His words made sense, and letting go of the tight grip he had on the blade, he nodded. "Of course."  
  
"Boys?" cackled the soft tones of Sephiroth, and they looked over at the grinning face of Aeris. "You're forgetting one minor thing."  
  
"We are..?" said Cloud slowly.  
  
"Here," she waved an arm at the green blaze, "is the nexus of those two powers. All I would have to do is cast myself into their reborn fury and I, shall become a God, above all others.. with this body."  
  
Cloud looked back at Leon, and lowered his voice. "What do we do?"  
  
"I don't know. I would suggest.. wounding Aeris."  
  
"She's a magic user, it would be too hard to-"  
  
"Cloud, what else do we have left to rely on? What else? Magic isn't everything!"  
  
"I.."  
  
"Trust me," he said with a slow smile, mouth unused to it. His hand was firm on the other man's shoulder and then the mercenary nodded too.  
  
Now he understood it. Everything else was just training, in how to resist magic and the sorceress, everything else was just childs play. Lifting his sword with no amount of bitterness, he looked up and took in what he assumed would be the last sight of Aeris. The green flames and the brightness of her eyes.  
  
This was his choice.  
  
Behind him a shade of a girl in blue smiled gently, and whispered, "Well done.. Knight.."  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
It was so small that she hadn't noticed at first.  
  
A tiny sliver of light that she could barely pass her smallest finger through, but with the expulsion of light into the dark the cries of the shades became excited and suddenly hope filled and rushing forwards they began to eagerly help beat against the blackness. Their fists were solid and their passions exulted them to levels of new hope, and bit by slow bit the crack widened.  
  
It brought with it smells of sulphur and burning, the taste of sweat on licked lips and the feeling of being cold over her arms. Ice, was a trademark of Sephiroth's magic casting, and with fear she knew he had been using her magic even more.  
  
As her ghosts worked their magic on the crack, and began to prepare herself.  
  
She knew the banishing spell, it had been a while since she had been forced to use it on anyone, not since the temple. It drew a lot out of her to be sure, but it was effective and ensured that she would have control of her own body again, once it was done.  
  
Her mind was blank but she held her hands close to her chest as she whispered, nodding thoughtfully now and then at regular intervals.  
  
This was her chance, this was her only way.. and slowly sound returned to her ears..  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"...And so," Aeris lifted her hand, her eyes glittering with green malice, "this is how it ends, puppet.. and how fitting.. how fitting indeed."  
  
Cloud stared wordlessly as ice began to form over the delicate fingers, shards spiking round Aeris' face and frosting down her perfect cheekbones, Leon at his side shaking his head.  
  
Now or never, now or-  
  
"No."  
  
The hand faltered, ice receeding as another hand was placed atop it.  
  
Cloud forced himself to hold in a cry, as loving ruby red eyes locked firmly with his for a second, then turned their wild kindness down into the green ones.. and with a slight smile the shade whispered again, "In the end, Sephiroth.. no.."  
  
(( I know it's short, but.. we're onto the last 3 chaps now!!! Love you all for r'n'ring and please keep it up. I love hearing what you all think. Thanks from me to you! Bhrynny xx )) 


	21. 20: Forgive me my Sins

Destroyed  
~  
Chapter 20: Forgive me my Sins  
~  
~  
"Reason will not plead to solution,  
I will end up lost in confusion.  
I don't care if you really care,  
As long as you don't go.."  
~Cardigans  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
He was dark.  
  
She was light.  
  
He was stubborn.  
  
She was self confident.  
  
He said, "I have come this far and I cannot see it end."  
  
She said, "I will not die until you do."  
  
"I have no reason left to be sinful," replied he.  
  
"Then why do you continue to shout out and terrorise the world," countered she.  
  
"Because.." started Sephiroth.  
  
Aeris finished, "...it's what we are."  
  
Two people, so alike and yet unalike.. and as they turned, so did the world..  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
"Teef?"  
  
She looked up from where she was holding Aeris' arm, out over the misty world to the man she had loved dearly in life, and let her fragile and short smile drift over her face. He looked less worse for wear, his eyes still bright but clothes ripped and the way he held himself, that had not changed apart from possibly getting more withdrawn.  
  
He looked so desperate, taking steps towards her. She shook her head, "not now Cloud.. there will be time for talking later."  
  
"It's been a long time, though.."  
  
"I know.. I know."  
  
She shifted her ruby eyes across to the other man who stood by Cloud's side, looking just as shell shocked, his mouth hanging slightly open and his smoky blue eyes no less bewildered. Of course, the world where Leon came from was slightly less optomistic about ghosts and apparitions, but there was no other way to set in motion what must be done, for good or for ill.  
  
"Don't be afraid," she said, in her voice that sounded like it was being played backwards, sucking inwards rather than expanding outwards, giving the image that she was displaced from this existance. Indeed, Tifa now existed on a plane just overlapping that of reality.   
  
The world of the dead.  
  
Shaking his head, the man just stared.   
  
Amused, the raven haired beauty looked back at the frail form of Aeris and the terrible magic and power struggles being fought over inside her body.  
  
"Hey, Aeris," she said softly, " I know you can hear me."  
  
The small glitter in the green eyes was all the confirmation Tifa needed, so she kept talking in the same sweet tones. "I just wanted to make sure you were allright.. your choice is coming up."  
  
She hesitated.. then swept on.  
  
"It's not an easy choice I know, but by now you should know what to do. If you don't, then don't worry.. I promise, i'd give up my soul to lift you up."  
  
The eyes softened for a mere instant, then the struggling against her ephemeral hold on Aeris' arm began again and Tifa looked down at her imaginary mailed fist, only tightening her bruising hold on the flower girl.  
  
"It's nice where I am, you never said how beautiful it is there. I'm glad I was let into there... everyone is there. Your mother sends her love.. as do the gang."  
  
"Get off me you shade of nothing," spat Sephiroth's voice and with a wrench of magic that passed through Tifa's ghostly image, the martial artist staggered and vanished like a breeze, only to re-appear in a winded fashion over by the green blaze.  
  
"That.. mildly stung," she laughed softly, straightening with a slightly put out look.  
  
"I can think of worse spells," another voice added.  
  
The look that came over Leon's face wrenched Tifa's heart.. but it had to be done...  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
His hand tightened into a fist then with a lurch and a cry he ran forwards, arms outstretched the grab the small girl who walked towards Tifa, but with the whispering winds and autumn scents on the air, he passed right through the ghost and found himself holding nothing but the thin air.  
  
The shade turned to him with her pinball smile that lit up her dark eyes, the soft brown hair and her favoured blue overcoat hanging down to her ankles. Her skin was ivory still and the sense of fun she exuded had not lessened with death.  
  
"Rinoa!" he cried hoarsely.  
  
"Squall.. don't do that, you could hurt yourself!" and she laughed.  
  
His sorceress, his best friend. How.. why?  
  
A thousand other questions crashed down in his head with strange urgency but all he found himself able to say was, "Rin.."  
  
"Squall," she began softly, "Normally I would have passed on if I didn't have some part in all of this. You have a duty to do now, don't fail it. You know your duty right? Save her, like you would have saved me."  
  
"But.. don't go again." His hand reached for her again and passed uselessly through, to his own sorrow. He knew in his head it was futile to even try to pull her back to the land of the living but deep down he was desperate to, needed to.  
  
"I do what I must.. would you deny me peace?"  
  
"No!"  
  
She flicked hair over one shoulder and smiled enigmatically, "You'll see Squall.."  
  
"Will I..?" he replied miserably, and looked back at Cloud who was loosening his sword, and then turning he made his way back across to the shadowy man.  
  
Cloud glanced up past the flicks of his blond hair and smiled sadly, "They still stay with us, even in death. They're right though, we can't stop, stopping would deny them all they need after all."  
  
"Whatever," grumbled Leon and touched the griever pendant that hung down his chest, licking over his old wounds and new burns. But Cloud was right, how could he deny his Sorceress all that she wanted? Shutting his eyes, he burnt the image of her wings on her back into his mind, burnt there his sworn duty and his fervent promise, burnt away all his tears that he needed to shed. Now, there was no turning back.  
  
"Let's end this," he said, as about them, magic began to fall.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Rinoa watched him for the barest of moments, then with her sad smile and a last nod to Squall in encouragment, she looked back at Tifa.  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
"Yes, I am Sorceress."  
  
Rin made a small gesture. "Where is she?"  
  
A hand waved in the direction of the wall, "she got knocked out, just there."  
  
"Ahh, I see her."  
  
Tifa hesitated, then spoke up, "Rinoa. Why her?"  
  
"I need an heir to rest in peace, I must.. she'll understand. I won't be long," and so saying she hurried across the uneven floor to where the ninja lay curled up.  
  
She seemed ever so small now that Rinoa had a chance to look down on her, almost curled up in her foetal position, one hand tucked behind her head where a nasty lump was rising with dreadful certainty. Her face was softened in repose and less hardship filled, the nose seemed less bold and her eyelashes awfully long on her flawless tanned cheeks. It was a hard thing to do, but Yuffie..was all she had left.  
  
Placing her hands on the girl, she sighed.. as even as she transferred over her powers and rights as a sorceress to the sleeping girl who would remain unawares for a while about her true self, she dissipated on the winds, a trickle of blue at first.. but soon a flood of colour sweeping up over the horizon, and out through the lifestream to her eternal peace...  
  
At last.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
The first rocks that fell were aimed at Cloud's head, one managing to brush past his now unarmoured shoulder with acute accuracy and causing the mercenary to stop and wince, holding onto his arm.  
  
Leon fared better, dodging with better agility and winding his way towards her with snaking ability that left him mildy impressed by the man's determination. However, it did him little good for the closer he got, the more chance it gave Sephiroth.  
  
Watching him close the distance, he let the frost weave up Aeris' arms and lifting them with a shrill cry of fury, she unleashed her might of magic, the fire lancing over the ceiling and then bringing it razing down over the already tumbledown room. The lifestream behind crackled and fizzled with the magic, like it reacted to it with gusto. Taking this as a cautionary sign, he pushed the Cetra's body into a roll that muscles were unused to doing, but augmented by his own martial knowledge and magic she managed to make it back to her feet.  
  
Just in time for the buster sword to clang off the arm shields she had automatically erected with the thrill of battle.  
  
Snarling, Seph made Aeris reach for the blade, and kick her foot out with excrutiating force for Cloud's knee. Both bodies jolted as it connected and the soldier danced away with a yelp of pain, reaching down for where the ridge of the Cetra's boots had bitten deeply enough to draw blood.  
  
The next attack came from behind, a slamming attack that she was less prepared for and the force of it took her from her feet and slammed her body into the wall.  
  
As she was being ground there, Seph took a moment to re-assess the situation. Clearly he was at a disadvantage here, for as strong as this Cetra was in magic, she was no match for anything purely physical.  
  
Still, he could always exhaust her magic.  
  
Lifting a hand above his head, sparks began to trickle between her delicate fingers, sparks that slowly grew to great bolts of electricity, lancing out over the arena where they fought and slamming into the walls as well as the men, even passing through the shade of Tifa much to the shades shock. Where they struck rock they sparked and tore off chunks.  
  
One flew hard enough and grazed Aeris' shoulder and the sudden flood of pain took Seph off guard.  
  
~ Damn your useless body, Cetra! ~  
  
~* Whats the matter, Seph.. not liking it? *~  
  
Snarling and cursing in tongues and words best left unsaid or mimicked, he clapped the Cetra's hand to the wound and looked out with glittering green eyes, and then down at the prone body of Leon.  
  
Lifting her free hand, a knife of ice burst from the palm and bled down the icy shaft. Leaning down, Seph pressed the tip of it to under Leon's neck, the electricity apparantly having overloaded his nerves for the moment.  
  
"This will teach you to mess with a g-"  
  
He never got to finish his taunting and gloating as a blade sliced into her calf.  
  
Screaming she slashed out with the dagger and tripped over her own dress hem, sliding backwards and turning over onto her side with a groan of bruised pain.  
  
~* Cloud! I know what you need to do! *~  
  
~ I'll be damned if I let you.. ~  
  
Pushing her/himself up, Sephiroth looked up in anger at Cloud, and then just as the blond man was coming about for another whip with the sword, she snaked out a hand and whispered. Time slowed to jelly and to his obvious disgust his blow was slowed also to half the time, giving Aeris time to stand up and bring her arm about with a snapping motion.  
  
The ice dagger sliced over Cloud's chest and cut deep into the metallic arm, ruining it and leaving shards of metal poking out everywhere.   
  
In that time, Leon recovered and lifted his sword arm, but Aeris moved over and pressed her foot down on his wrist.  
  
"Oh, now isn't this sweet.."  
  
~* CLOUD!!!! *~  
  
It was never sure if the scream reached him properly.  
  
Maybe it was magic.  
  
Maybe it was fate.  
  
But what etched itself forever into Leon's mind, Aeris' and Cloud's was the moment when the buster sword came slicing through Aeris' middle, stuck there much like the masamune had so long ago.  
  
She convulsed in shock, and brought her hand down to her middle and the growing stain.   
  
It was then that Sephiroth fled her body, and ran towards it's only other mind it had ever touched.  
  
Cloud.  
  
Blood dripped down in some kind of strange blood magic ritual onto Leon's shocked and upturned face, as much to his horror a strange smile lit Aeris' face and whitening surely she fell slowly down to her knees, the support of the buster sword vanished from her middle.  
  
"Not banishement, binding.. Cloud."  
  
Wordlessly he grabbed a hold of her and pressed her to his chest, as she looked up and over his shoulder with failing eyesight at the shadowy figure of Cloud. He stared back down, finally the master of the spirit inside him.. he knew what he must do. Tifa stood a little behind him, with the sweet smile she had always reserved for Aeris.  
  
"I love you, Aeris," she mouthed, as Cloud turned and ran through her.  
  
As often it did, time slowed for the Cetra.  
  
It forze the tears sliding down her cheeks.  
  
It deadened the air.  
  
It made Cloud's mad dash seem almost imperceptibly slow, as he flung himself and Sephiroth into the pit of the magic and time.  
  
~ I made my choice.. be proud of me.. ~  
  
Shutting her eyes in slow motion, she felt the dissolving of Cloud as his dominant will forced Sephiroth down.. and threading her last magic into it, the binding and banishing spell, she knew for certain that now Sephiroth would never come back, his soul forever joined to the lifestream, never to reborn and never to be let loose.  
  
The tears so slow fell, as did the drops of blood, the world about her fading slowly too..  
  
Everything but the sunshine in her mind.. everything but..  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
Putting a hand to her head, Yuffie slowly sat up then nursed with no amount of pain expressable, the dull ache that came from hitting her head. As she felt groggily sick for some other reason she couldn't put her finger on, the ninja girl took one look about the cavern, seeing no Cloud.. but a Leon hugging Aeris. With a smile she hurriedly got to her feet and even forgot to curse Cid-style at the throbbing pain it caused.  
  
Happiness over her face she hobbled over to Leon, "we did it, we got Aeris back."  
  
He was silent, and circling round she chittered on, "hey say something."  
  
Nothing.  
  
Then she saw it, the wound in Aeris' back, and with a gasp she almost collapsed onto her knees with sudden panic. "Aeris!"  
  
The girl mumbled, faint upon Leon's shoulder and tickled by his brown hair.  
  
"Yuffie.. magic.." he gasped hoarsely.  
  
"I..I.."  
  
But she tried anyway, looking for the Materia.. even as Aeris' eyes slid shut..  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
He was dark.  
  
She was light.  
  
He had his faith restored.  
  
She had her love restored.  
  
He said, "I trust in you. You gave me the choice, a long time ago. Facing upto him also meant realising I had to go too, as the last remaining clone. The longer I lingered, so would he. Nothing was seen clearly to begin with."  
  
She said, "I couldn't let him destroy you and everything we had all worked so hard for, I couldn't see it all crumble under us like a house of cards. I wanted so badly to see you again but the more I saw, the less it hurt. The more I realised I had been healed, inside and out."  
  
"I'm glad for everything we had." he replied.  
  
"I'm finally able to rest," she sighed.  
  
He was Cloud.  
  
She was Aeris.  
  
"... are you sure that's what you want?" asked the third party. 


	22. 21: Falling into You

Destroyed  
~  
Chapter 21: Falling into You  
~  
~  
"One day I'm gonna be there too,  
Where the sun is shining and the water's blue.."  
OPM~  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
"Nothing's working!" cried the ninja in desperation as tears poured down her cheeks, staining the pale skin through the dirt and scratches, making her suddenly seem so young and so vulnerable as her nerveless fingers tumbled through her materia with panic.   
  
The light of the chamber remained the same lurid green blaze, the light flickering over the ruined walls and illuminating the choking clouds of dust that hung in the air from use of potent magic. It spilt highlights over the sickening pool of blood that was half gathered under where Leon was cradling Aeris close with his head buried into her hair.  
  
Her skin was cold, much colder than he could have thought skin to be. Not unlike when Rinoa had been in a coma. No, very un-alike.  
  
This time, Aeris wasn't sleeping. She was dying.  
  
Her breath was a faint stir on his sweaty cheek, her eyelids fluttering as they lay almost shut and her hands slack over his shoulders, one splayed over her middle, trying to hold together the dreadful sword wound. Leon knew why Cloud had done what he had done, knew it had to happen this way for there to be an end. Force the bad magic out of one into another, the premise had worked well in his own world, but the after effects he had forgotten in his haste.  
  
"Stir, Aeris," he mumbled numbly.  
  
But the girl kept breathing raggedly with little signs of life, his own leather clad hands slippery as he held onto her so tightly that he wondered if even death could take her away from him.  
  
"Aeris.."  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
She ran down the metal corridor with a small squeal of glee. She was no older than four and dressed in a pretty enough dress of blue which hung to her knees, tied at the back with a ribbon and her naturally long hair was also pulled back from her face. She wore patent leather shoes that click clacked as she ran, the white overapron flaring behind her.  
  
She found what she was looking for, a hiding place.  
  
It was just under a table where a small girl like herself would have no trouble hiding, and giggling to herself she squeezed down into it, drawing her knees up to her chest even as the door opened.  
  
Standing in the doorway was a tall young man with the look of Wutai about him, short cropped black hair and pale skin, the man could have been no older than nineteen, still fresh and young enough to play with a girl who was left alone for hours on end to boredom inbetween the sickening experiments.  
  
"Hmm," came his soft and soothing voice, "I wonder.. could the little mouse have escaped into here..?"  
  
The girl lifted her hand and covered her mouth against more giggles.  
  
She loved playing hide and seek, she was very good at hiding and her natural talents as a Cetra made it pretty easy to home in on wherever anyone else would try and hide.  
  
Sounds of movement were made and she knew Tseng was looking round the large office, hearing the clang of filing cabinet drawers and then a silence as he tried to discern whether the small girl could squeeze through the back gap and hide. Then a metal drawer shut and his amused voice lilted out yet again.  
  
"Oh ho.. not the filing cabinet this time.. maybe she's behind.. here!"  
  
The ripping sound of old curtains being drawn back and then a laugh from Tseng made an involuntary giggle escape the young girl. He was so silly, looking for her there.  
  
"Ahh.. well maybe, she is.. under... here!"  
  
The wastepaper lining was pulled out.   
  
"I guess not," he said, and then stopped as the soft *shhlick* of the automatic door openeing foretold the arrival of some Shinra employee. Tseng stopped playing with the basket and straightened up. Curious, the young girl poked her face round the lowest leg part of the table and stared up at the man who walked in.  
  
It was Hojo, a tall and thin ascetic man in a white labcoat and always wearing a sneer on his greasy face. His very presence made the young girl shiver and his voice was like sandstone rubbing against sandpaper, gritting and harsh on the ears like he had spent too many years face down in a whiskey barrel.  
  
"Tseng, just what are you doing?!"  
  
"I was er.. tidying my office.. up."  
  
"I don't care, that was a rhetorical question. Now, where is the Cetra brat?"  
  
"I.."  
  
"You don't know," the sneer curled Hojo's lips, "well you'd better start knowing or better yet, find her and bring her to me. It's time to start a new test and to do that it is almost impossible to do if the child isn't there, do you understand!"  
  
"I.."  
  
"Tseng!"  
  
The young man lowered his dark and blazing eyes with something close to anger, "Yes, sir."  
  
Another head popped about the doorway and blinking blue eyes stared up at Hojo, then across at the table cove where the young girl hid and a hand waved. She waved back then made a small shushing motion, as the tone of the room lowered. The scientist looked about one last time, then stepped out as the young boy stepped in and looked up at Tseng.  
  
"What did *he* want?"  
  
Tseng shook his head, "I.. you can come out now."  
  
Biting her lip, the young girl slowly crawled from her hiding place and got to her feet with tears in her eyes and whispered in frightened tones for one so young, "You're no gonna let him take me!?"  
  
The red headed boy ran over, he easily seven or eight and pulled the girl into an impulsive hug. Rufus Shinra, a lonely little boy as he was growing up. His mother dead and his father always too busy for him, he had found entertainment for a brief time by playing with the Cetra girl who would one day decide the destiny of his very planet.  
  
In the future, he would die.  
  
"Doncha worry none, Tseng won-"  
  
"Rufus.. I have to."  
  
"You said you wouldn't let him!" the young girl sobbed, as she burst suddenly into tears, "it hurts, it really hurts! I hate him! I hate you!"  
  
"Aeris," Tseng said softly, but the girl ran from the room and directly into the hands of an older turk who tucked her immediately up into his arms. Screaming, she tried getting away but his hold was final, and as the lights flickered unevenly he began taking her back to the science lab as her yells echoed down the hall with something bordering on panic..  
  
Fear.  
  
~*~  
  
"I'm home!"  
  
The door swung open and the teenage girl stepped in. Lovely at sixteen, she wore her hair up in a sweeping braid which fell down between her shoulder blades, a delightful green dress and a pair of sturdy boots. Taking off her grey parker, she slung it over one of the coat hooks and waited for her mother to come out of the kitchen where she could smell dinner cooking.  
  
Placing her empty basket down on the table top, she mused softly about how she had swapped formal education for a quick source of money, Elmyra's pension from her husband wasn't enough to support them both. But, this way she got to spend more time with her flowers and less time around the smog filled upper plate and the people who annoyed her on a day to day basis with their selfish ways.  
  
At sixteen, the flower girl was still filled with the rebellious nature of the pubescent.  
  
"Mom?"  
  
Her mother finally came out of the kitchen and tutted at her daughter, who quickly pulled the basket off the table and tablemats, placing it with a guilty smile by the door and shoe rack, "sorry."  
  
The answering smile was much the same, careworn but happy. "It's alright. How was your day?"  
  
"I made 35 gil today, roses were in demand with the new showing of Loveless. All men wanted to buy their lady fair a red red rose," she put up a dramatic hand and then smiled, "did Zack call round?"  
  
"He did, he said he'll drop by after he's gotten on of his vambraces evened out."  
  
She nodded, and took a seat at the table, "what's for dinner? It smells delightful."  
  
"Chicken and pea soup with spiced bread. I made enough for Zack, lord knows that boy can eat."  
  
As the flower girl opened her mouth to say something, there was a knock at the door and all eyes turned towards it. "Zack?" she guessed as Elmyra made her slow way across to it and unbolted it.  
  
It was not Zack. It was a tall man with the look of lands far away in him and his blazing dark eyes, dressed in a formal navy blue suit. His eyes passed dismissively over Elmyra then moved over to where the flower girl sat frozen at the table with a thousand memories flashing through her head, of hide and seek and laughter filled afternoons and a deep, bitter resentment.  
  
But..  
  
"Aeris, it's good to see you again. May I come in, Ms Gainsborough?" he adressed Elmyra last, and the woman nodded, letting in the tall turk.  
  
Tseng's hair had grown and was left to hang to just above his broad shoulders, his skin was a little more wrinkled about the eyes and mouth but the youthful flair had not left his dark eyes, nor the snap from his tone no matter how soothing he tried to make it, "Thank you."  
  
"Tea? Coffee?" offered Elmyra, narrowing her eyes at the Turk.  
  
Both remembered him from his last visit some six years back. He had been none too polite but Aeris knew the hidden pain in his eyes, why he had always let her stay one jump ahead of the Turks.. why..  
  
"No thank you, I'm only here for a check in on Aeris."  
  
"Business?" sniffed the mother.  
  
"Personal," the Turk replied softly, his eyes on the flower girl who stared right back. Her small hands were folded ontop of the table. Tseng took a few steps forward and bent down to whisper something in her ear, then with the faintest of touches from his hand, he straightened and went.  
  
Staring at the empty doorway and the oddness of such things, the flower girl looked down at her hands.  
  
What he had told her, what she had told no other soul, was..  
  
~ Be strong. They hunt you again, and I cannot hold back the wolves forever.. ~  
  
Be strong.  
  
Taking it to heart, she relaxed after an hour, and even managed a playfight with Zack when he came bustling in with a small present for her, all wrapped up in a long shape and her name engraved with love on the handle. Her weapon.  
  
Hope.  
  
~*~  
  
Her eyes looked out over the wild landscape.  
  
The pitted mountains and falling canyons, the strange light of evening filtered down past rocks and crevices towards the ground where it flitted and shone like burnished fire. Her hands came up to touch the necklace she wore about her slim throat, her green eyes softly focused and her brown hair blowing about her face. Shivering she drew her red coat closer to herself, and wordlessly stayed silent.  
  
So much had happened to get hr here.  
  
Run away from Shinra and Midgar and traversed half the world. Met people she grew close to, people she feared and people who would ultimately change her life forever.  
  
What was she doing here, really?  
  
Who's quest was this anyway..  
  
Saving the planet was a good enough cause, yes.  
  
But was it really what she was doing?  
  
Confused by her own strange thinking she looked down and was half surprised to see Red sitting by her side, he too staring out over the canyon and the calls of desert birds at night, the flickering stars and the whispering reeds. His muzzle was lifted slightly and his single golden eye blazed against the fury of his red fur which had earnt him his nickname with the group.  
  
"You look for an answer too hard," he said wisely.  
  
"I.. I guess."  
  
"Stop looking, sometimes when we do that the answer turns up all on it's own, you know."  
  
"Maybe, that would be nice."  
  
"I mean it, Aeris. And I'm sorry, for scaring you the way I did when we first met."  
  
The girl..no the woman looked down at Red with slight confusion and he looked back up at her. There was an understanding, between two races that had stood the test of time against the invasive and destructive humans and both were now shrinking down to nothing. There was a glimmer of understanding.  
  
Red smiled, and turned, his fiery tail flickering then was swallowed up into the night as he padded off. A stiff breeze rifled past her hair, and confused she looked back out over the dusky prairie.. then she too turned and made her way into the shadows.  
  
Confusion.  
  
~*~  
  
The voices were... beautiful...  
  
They sang and carressed her, lovingly feeling every curve of her fragile body as she hung suspended against the backdrop of her own emotions, then soft over play of fading green light down the cheekbones of her face and over her shoulders and towards her fingers clasped by her breastbone. The voices, so many of them, piled over and under each other with the same desperation and need to talk to her, to get her to talk back. Singing, they held on hard, and she lifted her face as a breeze ran past her shoulder.  
  
She wasn't sure when she had started crying.  
  
A girl no more, a person who now forged ahead against destiny and chose to make a path for everyone else in this life.  
  
When it had all started, she had been so young and so lost.  
  
All the time she had spent with these, her deepest friends.. had made her much more. Gone was the fragile girl, replaced with qualities she had learnt to love and endeavour to keep close to her heart.  
  
Bright strength and confidence, the confidence of knowing what you did was right and believing in that whole heartedly. She had mastered this skill, from Cloud. From watching how, even if he did put a foot wrong, he would get up and carry on no matter how awful things got,. He believed and that was what kept his world turning.  
  
Anger. Something she had never truly coped well with as it always stood stark against her gentle orientated nature, but when she did get angry it was so rare that it left her shaking and weeping. But, seeing Tifa live day in and day out with her own anger and hate, her own griefs and sorrows had given the flower girl a deeper understanding of what it meant to be angry, what it meant to live with anger.  
  
Determination. Also can be called stubborness. This she learnt from Barrett, the walking mountain of muscle, with his ebony skin and brilliantly white smile, he always had a kind word of encouragement or support for her. He was also one of the struts that buffered up Tifa when she was feeling particularly hollow, and she saw his unspoken promise to her, and to the planet. It was that determination which she took and made her own that had helped her here.  
  
Patience. A naturally patient person by nature, she also learned how to temper patience with wisdom, a trick gained from studying Red. Another survivor of a race long gone, a warrior and philosopher, it was perhaps the long talks she had with him as they traversed far and wide that gave her time to think, to reason out the why of her existance, and also the faith that she could do.. what she was doing now.  
  
Kindness. Foul mouthed and spitting his curses in every direction but which, Cid had joined late, into the fellowship of sorts, but what she had seen was a kind heart under all the gruff exterior, a kindness he extended to everyone if they were in need or trouble, no matter the personal cost. Kindness she loved.  
  
Sorrow, the feeling of coldness and desperation and above all, loneliness. Vincent Valentine, a man with a shadowy past and half remembered events, the man who had loved Sephiroth's birth mother and been punished for that love, broken hearted. He still carried on though, and watching him made her more aware of mortality but above that, aware of the strength grief can come in.  
  
Power. Power to corrupt, to raze in destruction, or to heal and save. Power wielded in many forms but the one she grew accustomed to was the power of authority and law, upheld in the images of Reeve and Cait Sith, of how he lent his power to being underhand but also, she sensed, in trying to do what was ultimately right, even if it didn't seem so at the time.  
  
And last, but not least, Truth. The knowledge of the truth is a powerful weapon and seen ever more clearly through the eyes of the young. Yuffie, tormented by the wars of Wutai's past and the disgrace of her hometown's fall from favour with the DaChao gods they worshipped. The truth of needing to rebuild, the truth and ugliness of the world, as well as the beauties it could inspire. This clear eyed view, she now emerged with and felt the tears running down her cheeks.  
  
"Cloud, NO!"  
  
It was now or never as the voices swelled in song and violence, the spell completely with single bound of energy as she opened her eyes with her beatific smile and looked upon the face she would see last of all, the spiked blond hair and the lost, little boy eyes.. so wide and so blue. It was like falling into the sky, she felt like she could keep falling forever and she made to part her lips, beginning a single sentence..  
  
"I saved us.. I di-"  
  
Then came the sword, then came the pain, then came the blood.  
  
Slicing down and cutting her up, bleeding her dry and ravaging her perfect slim form. Leaning forward in shock and bracing her arms on the floor, her eyes crinkled up in pain at the edges. There was the faint scent of salt in the air, the sight of Cloud's military boots and someone laughing.  
  
Even as her sight faded she felt sick with the pain of the sword being pulled loose, and her strength failing she grasped Clod's arm and looked up tearfully into his wide blue eyes, trying to say something. Something trickled from the corner of her mouth, and she never got to shut her eyes.  
  
Darkness swallowed her.. and then came the sunshine..  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
Leon looked down, tears pouring from his eyes as Yuffie continued to weave magic.  
  
The ancient's eyes were still half open, as she exhaled.. and didn't breathe in again... 


	23. Epilogue: My Immortal

Destroyed  
~  
Epilogue: My Immortal  
  
"The last thing I ever wanted,  
Was to look into your eyes.  
The last thing I needed,  
Was to be covered in lies.  
Now one of us haunted,  
As over hills the sun does rise."  
Original Poetry by Me~  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
~ No... ~  
  
He took the glove slowly from his hand, her head resting lifeless on his shoulder.  
  
The glove was thrown to the side, and left without care there. His free fingers moved to touch the sugar spun brown of her adorable hair, the lankness caused by sweat and effort of magic. He carressed the cooling skin and the lace of her fine eyelashes and arched eyebrows. He felt the flawless surface over her straight and pretty nose, touched along the hints of freckles that dusted there in light peach shades. He passed over the rose hues of her lips.  
  
"No," he said raggedly, and shut his eyes against tears.  
  
The blood had slowed from the wound, still sticking her dress to his chest.  
  
Aside from him, Yuffie covered her mouth with a trembling hand, ignoring the blood she too had gained from trying to heal Aeris. It smeared over the pallid skin of the ninja girl's face and left a lurid highlight of death. The violet eyes were wide pupilled, lost in a face that had usually been noted for it's jac-o-lantern grin.  
  
He tried pinching her shoulder softly, but nothing would rouse his half gone angel.  
  
"Aeris," he whispered softly, running his hands down her arms and the wincing numbly as his elbow hit something, and a small flat but oblongish object fell out of his coat pocket and onto the floor, skittering away in the green highlights of the blazing fire.  
  
It lay, gleaming purple and black.  
  
~ Her diary. ~  
  
Reaching out with extreme care so he wouldn't dislodge Aeris, with the overcareful movements of someone who was in deep shock, he lifted the small book and studied the name printed over the top of it in gold lettering.  
  
Aeris Gainsborough.  
  
His angel, his foresight and past sight, his future and his uneven path.   
  
Leon manourvered his arms about the still form of Aeris, resting so he could thumb open the diary and look through the many pages. It was beautifully crafted and had obviously cost a fair bit of munny, the pages organically made and still with the homespun touches of rough papermaking. It smelt faintly of cinnamon and the sweet smell of pancake cooking.  
  
Aeris used to love making pancakes.  
  
Something leaked from one eyes, but stoically ignoring it, he read on through the diary, carefully keeping all the words recorded close to his heart.  
  
She had loved to write it appeared, invested a lot of her time in the words written in the book. Poetry and mediums of art, faint sketches of plants and worlds he would never know. A decent artist's rendition of a small cosy village, a few old houses and a couple stood before a doorway waving. Lettered in under the couple was the small phrase, "Zack's parents. I never could bring myself to tell them where Zack had gone, I never saw him in the Promised Land. So much I had wanted to do, and no time left."  
  
He bit a lip and moved through all the other sketches, interspersed with words.  
  
A fantastical sketch that spanned two pages in rich reds and crayoned yellows and browns, painted over to give a real feel of texture. Stone built, hewn from rocks and with a bright light flaring at the centre as if by some fey magic others had forgotten. Under was inked, "Cosmo Canyon, the birthplace of natural thought and home to my faith. May it always stand against the darkness."  
  
A couple of other things slipped out, and looking down he picked them up.  
  
One was a photograph of the group and suddenly he could put faces to those he had only heard of from Yuffie's reminiscing. The faces of the dour Vincent, the bright Cait, the wise Red and towering Barret. The stern Cloud of course, the wild Tifa and the young Ninja, hemming in that of Cid with his arm about a small woman's shoulders.. Aeris.  
  
The picture had been taken infront of some kind of temple, the air about the group glowing almost.  
  
The other was of Aeris and Tifa, both sat on a hillside and take from an angle where one could see Tifa holding onto Aeris as she lifted up a flower in the sunshine for her friend to inspect and beyond them rolled the beautiful landscape.  
  
The last was of Cloud, sat looking pensive with his sword over his legs and a roll of bandaging in one hand as she tied up what had to be yet another scratch. Turning it over, there were the words, "Another bandersnatch, another day," written on the back of the stillframe of life.  
  
Her handwriting.  
  
Her memories.  
  
Swallowing against the lump in his throat, he looked back at the open diary, and in a shaky voice began to read:  
  
"I've never wanted to see a sunrise,  
Not as much as I've wanted to see your eyes.  
I've dreamt of being held close to you,  
Inside a love, warm and true.  
I've wished for a life to call my own,  
I've wished on stars, far from home.."  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   
  
She rested her hands on her knee, sat on the leeside of the faintly sloping hill and looking down on the fields that stretched far and wide before her. She still wore her pink dress, her heavy gardening boots and the necklace, she still hung onto her pink ribbon and metallic bracelets, her brown hair and wide green eyes.  
  
There were still mudstains running up the sides of her dress from where she had wiped her hands after gardening, she still loved to joke about her trowel and flowers. The field was long, as far as the eyes could see and running to meet the horizon. On the hill where she half sat, admiring the splendour of the afterlife, stood a heavy tree that cast shade over her and the spot where she rested.  
  
A faint haze of colour and from beside her, her friend sat up and into view from the flowers.  
  
"Well is it?"  
  
Aeris tilted her head and looked at Tifa, at her friend's strong profile and plump lips, at the way she unconciously sat so her back wouldn't suffer too much from bad posture and where she picked tufts of grass lazily and twirled them between her fingers with a kind of wild abandon.  
  
"Are you asking me if I *want* to be dead?"  
  
"In a way..nice day, isn't it?"  
  
The ancient ignored the small talk, and carried on relentlessly, "It's always nice here and you know it.. now answer me."  
  
"We've known each other a long time, Aeris, and I've always wanted to ask something, from the heart."  
  
"Anything.."  
  
"Why?"  
  
Taken aback, Aeris took in a lungful of the healthy air, the sweet scents of the flowers and earthy tones of the dirt and grass. There was hardly any breeze and she could swear she was breathing in sunshine. "Why... did I go the first time?"  
  
"Yeah.. you could have been cured, been saved but it was as if you'd..given up."  
  
"I.." It was true. In a fashion. After the spell she had hardly any strength left and the last was taken up trying to tell Cloud that she had managed to contact Holy. There had been nothing left to bolster her dying body.. "I couldn't help it. I didn't want to die. I knew what I was doing was right and had no regrets, all but that I would never see you all again."  
  
"But.."  
  
"No I was scared too. I was scared about dying, where I would end up after it all was over, if the Promised Land really did exist. But it did, a final rest for the Cetra after their long battle with the world. I was given my final rest.."  
  
Tifa looked out as Aeris moved her gaze from her friend and down to her hands, laced carefully over one knee.  
  
"I see. And now..?"  
  
"Now, I'm dead again."  
  
"No, dying," corrected Tifa.  
  
"Dying..?"  
  
~*~  
  
In the background came the soft chimes of piano music, tripping down her senses and turning the world of flowers and grass faded, the sunshine dimming to the room of a hotel where it was empty but for a piano and the man sat at the piano, playing away to himself.  
  
Curious, Aeris got to her feet from where she was sat on the luch carpeted floor, and then dusting down her dirtied work dress, she made her own way across to the man. Closer up she could see he wore black trousers and a dark, navy blue shirt with the cuffs rolled up and open at the neck, the white tie left undone either side of the collar.   
  
It was Cloud.  
  
His fingers lightly danced over the keys, creating this beautiful melody.  
  
"Yes, dying," he said softly, "you're not dead yet."  
  
"Cloud," she said softly, reaching out and finding his face quite solid under her hand. It brought a smile to sad features and gave the planes and angles of a weathered and downtrodden face some hope and light. He looked so handsome when he finally smiled, just for her. "There's so much I wanted to tell you, how long it's been and how hard.. I've come so far."  
  
"I went a long way looking for you, you know. I promised myself that, this time, you had to be given your fair shot at life. Just because the rest of us kept messing up, didn't mean you had."  
  
"Cloud," she began again, shaking her head but his words stopped her.  
  
"No, it's alright. I missed you so much, so very much.." he paused, keys and fingerwork never ceasing, "But I finally realised, I had to let go. Like you did."  
  
"I.. Leon.. you.."  
  
"I understand. I had my chance, and I messed it up. I can't let that hopeless guy do the same now, can I?"  
  
"I don't understand."  
  
He laughed then, a sound she had rarely heard, full of life and so warm. "Aeris.. you don't have to understand."  
  
He seemed so different here. Alive, in place, at peace. All the horror and silence of his life was washed away, was gone and he was made anew as the man he should have been, and deep inside she smiled in relief. Here he could have everything she failed to give him, and her eyes sparkled with the understanding.  
  
"One more time, my Cetra angel.." he looked up at her in the shadows of the dark room, the music softer now. But his eyes never lost their shine, and never lost their love and trust, "is this, really what you want?"  
  
"I want to live," she replied.  
  
He smiled and shut his eyes, "finally."  
  
The room seemed to blur as if moved too fast and she turned on her heel, dizzy and sick and putting hands to her head. From the darkness, slowly stepped a figure she had never imagined to see again. Bathed in pale light and dressed in the coolest of green colours, the same brown hair unbound and the same loving smile.  
  
A hand touched her and in return, she clung onto the last thing she would see here for a long.. long while.  
  
"Then.. find a way, Aeris."  
  
She stiffened.  
  
"Of course, you silly girl. Everything else was.. part of your destiny."  
  
"I did though, I set them free, I prevented the Destruction, I gave them futures.. and peace."  
  
Her mother however, just brushed hair from her daughter face, the light dimming gradually and almost unnoticeably. "Aeris.. Aeris my life and flower.. what about yourself?"  
  
~ What about.. myself..? ~  
  
"I want... to live."  
  
"Then.. find a way, and go back.. go back Aeris.."  
  
Shadows came in, warm and loving and nothing like the hard blackness she had been swamped in before. Lifting her hands, she felt the tears down her cheeks but didn't think she was crying.. the faces of Tifa and Cloud emerged from the shadows, and smiled lovingly at her. Followed by those of her old friends.  
  
Crying, she tried reaching out to them, but they just pointed upwards.  
  
Other faces appeared, whispering and helping..  
  
"Thank you Aeris."  
  
"Gods bless you.."  
  
"Live for us, for what you did."  
  
"Tell Squall I miss him."  
  
"With honour, with might.."  
  
"Pray." "Pray" and "pray..."  
  
So she did..  
  
She prayed.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
The green blaze flickered behind him and with a yelp he stopped reading as the fire came cascading out like a whisplash and began pouring down onto him and the form he still cradled. Yuffie leapt from the fray, materia scattering everywhere and casting a beautiful, bejewelled radiance.  
  
Holding on, he could feel the fire burn.  
  
It was good, all this burning.  
  
It would make him stronger.  
  
Crying out as the pain built to a crescendo of the power of Creation, it just as suddenly as it had started, stopped.  
  
His eyes looked across at Yuffie, who sat up and pushed her strip of material from her eyes, her materia pouch emtpy. Then she lifted a hand and pointed, swearing excitedly.  
  
Frowning, Leon opened his mouth to reprimand the girl when he felt something stir against his skin. Like butterfly wings, the faint heat of breath on his neck, the fluttering of soft eyelashes and then the sudden coughing as Aeris convulsed against him.  
  
Drawing his arms wonderingly and worriedly about the girl who had died not ten minutes ago, she tried leaning to one side and began coughing up blood and chunks of congealed blood, not caring how she looked.   
  
Nothing would remove his arms, but the smile that lit both his and Yuffie's face when the Key of Power looked up from his hands and into his face was dazzling. She lifted a hand weakly and tapped her diary, "I thought.. I said never to read my diary."  
  
"You're alive," he breathed, too afraid to move incase she turned to smoke, incase he was imagining it.  
  
"I am, aren't I," she lifted her hand in the glow that still surrounded her. The Key of Power, to creation.. to life and truth, but also to death. Power, all her own now. And glowing she smiled at him softly, looking more royal than any princess Leon had ever met. "I found.. *my* way.."  
  
"And what way is that?"  
  
There was nothing left to be said, as the thrice blessed child of power pressed her lips to his.. and began a whole new story...  
  
~*~  
  
(( Thanks to my Readers, thanks to my reviewers.. keep 'em peeled for the next big story, haven't decided yet which it should be, but the list is in my profile. Finally, finished a project! Tell me what you think and maybe if you're nice enough, I'll write a story for you.. All my love, Bhryn. xxx )) 


End file.
